Updated 16:43 03/09/2022, 12:54 The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday at the age of 91, was buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery on Saturday. He was placed next to his wife Raisa, who has been resting there since 1999, world news agencies reported. The coffin was lowered into the grave to the sounds of an honorary salvo and the Russian national anthem played by a small military orchestra. Novodevichy Cemetery is the final resting place of many leading Russian writers, intellectuals and politicians, including the first Russian president, Boris Yeltsin. Before the actual funeral, a final farewell took place in the Column Hall of the House of Trade Unions in Moscow, during which thousands of people came to say goodbye to Gorbachev, waiting in a long line in front of the building. Inside the House of Trade Unions, the coffin with Gorbachev’s body was opened, near which sat his daughter Irina Virganská and his two granddaughters. Due to the large number of people arriving, they had to extend the farewell by two hours. The coffin was carried out of the House of Trade Unions in a funeral procession led by Dmitry Muratov, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which Gorbachev once helped found. The Kremlin did not organize a state funeral for Gorbachev, and neither did President Vladimir Putin, who apologized for being busy with work. However, the Russian government helped organize the funeral and an honor guard stood by the coffin. Orbán also came Western countries were represented at the level of ambassadors and diplomats, as Russia, in response to the sanctions imposed for the invasion of Ukraine, banned several foreign politicians from entering its territory. In addition, Russian airspace is closed to aircraft from “enemy EU countries”. Among high-ranking foreign statesmen, only Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is a critic of anti-Russian sanctions, came personally to the farewell. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and well-known singer Alla Pugachevova were among the participants. Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of Mikhail Gorbachev. The Kremlin revealed the reason