While Vladimir Putin ignored the farewell ceremony to the last Soviet leader, thousands of Russians paid him a tribute which took the form of a silent protest against the regime.
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Thousands of Russians paid a last tribute to Mikhaïl Gorbatchev in the large column hall of the House of the Union, located a few hundred meters from the Kremlin walls on Saturday September 3, on Saturday September 3. Tradition is partially respected, since the protocol looked like that of the previous burials of Soviet leaders. Two soldiers in great outfit on both sides of the coffin of the last Soviet leader, who died on August 30 at the age of 91. Three soldiers from the Kremlin guard, gun rifle and high calf, formed a hedge of honor between the public and the deceased. No Orthodox symbol was visible, but a priest recited a short prayer.
Some size differences reveal both the historical importance of the last president of the USSR, the nature of the current regime and their obvious incompatibility. The very telling absence of the Head of State – a historic first – signals a contempt for man and his political heritage. Vladimir Putin refused to organize national funeral, only holding “elements”, as indicated by the spokesperson for Kremlin, Dmitri Peskov.
The condolence telegram addressed by Putin to the family of the deceased “is of a maximum drought”, notes Mikhail Chevtchouk on the Republic site, and has “no epithet touching Gorbatchev himself, nothing friendly, to The reverse of the telegram addressed to the relatives of Daria Douguina [nationalist muse and daughter of the ultra -conservative ideologist Alexandre Douguine, murdered on August 20] who counted much more kind words, it is striking. Putin writes from her that she is a Russian patriot with a real Russian heart, while Gorbachev was just a politician “.
hated for his” weakness “
Mikhail Gorbachev is the one who defeated the grip on the country of the KGB, from where Vladimir Putin came and his closest allies. For the hawks of the regime as for the grand-Russian nationalists, the former secretary general is literally hated for his “weakness”, which he said, according to them, to allow the countries of the Warsaw Pact as well as to the Socialist Republics (including Ukraine) to escape the Moscow Fairy.
According to the silent instruction given by the master of the Kremlin, the Russian political elite obediently ignored the ceremony. With the notable exception of former Russian president Dmitri Medvedev (2008-2012), now confined to the role of deputy director of the Russian Security Council. Tilted towards a rapprochement with the West and a modernization of the country during his mandate, in 2011 he had decorated Mikhail Gorbachev of the Andreï Pervozvanniy order, the highest civil reward in the country, on the occasion of his 80th birthday. The presence of Mr. Medvedev on Saturday was not obvious, since the former president multiplies in recent months the bellicose and hostile statements towards Ukraine and the West in general, seeking to make his place among the hawks of the diet.
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