Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader beloved of the West who lived long enough to see all the reforms he had championed in his homeland undone, will be buried without state honours or the presence of the current Kremlin incumbent
Gorbachev became a hero in the West for allowing eastern Europe to shake off more than four decades of Soviet communist control, letting East and West Germany reunite, and forging arms control treaties with the United States.
Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday aged 91, has been granted a public send-off - Muscovites will be able to view his coffin in the imposing Hall of Columns, within sight of the Kremlin, where previous Soviet leaders have been mourned. Instead, an unknown number of ordinary Russians will from 10 a.m. file past the open coffin of the Nobel Peace laureate, whose guard of honour will provide an "element" of a state occasion, according to the Kremlin.
After the ceremony Gorbachev will, however, be buried like Yeltsin in Moscow's Novodevichy cemetery, alongside his adored wife Raisa, who predeceased him by a painful 23 years.
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