Russia's Putin already paid last respects to Gorbachev, will not attend funeral: Kremlin

MOSCOW

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of late Soviet statesman Mikhail Gorbachev set for Saturday.

According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin has a busy schedule that day, and so he already paid his last respects to Gorbachev, the last president of the USSR, on Thursday.

"Unfortunately, the president's work schedule will not allow him to do this on Sept. 3," Peskov told reporters at a Friday press briefing in Moscow.

Gorbachev will be buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery, the most prestigious necropolis of the Russian capital.

On Friday, people will come to the House of Unions, a historical building in central Moscow, for a farewell ceremony for Gorbachev.

On Thursday, Putin brought a bouquet of roses and paid his last respects to Gorbachev at the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital, where Gorbachev died after a prolonged illness.

With policies of perestroika and glasnost, the Communist Party leader brought economic and political reforms to the Soviet Union, which some critics blame for its dissolution.

Leaders from around the world have expressed their condolences over the death of Gorbachev, a key figure of the Cold War era.