He has been dead for a little while. A state funeral has been held, apparently.
RIP, Gorby.
I have a photo of him with my parents - they met him several years ago at an event. RIP.
Not quite a state funeral in an apparent snub by Putin.
Putin is a giant ass. And deathly afraid of germs and assassins. He apparently did some private visitation (or was it his body double?) . The rest of the funeral was apparently up to the state funeral standards, complete with creepy viewing and speeches.
Putin also called the fall of the Soviet Union the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century (I posted this and then saw that the Guardian article mentions that fact). He’s not a big fan of Gorbachev obviously… I was a teenager in the Soviet Union in the mid- and late 1980s, and I’m forever grateful to Gorbachev for changing my life and giving my generation a taste of freedom. RIP.