Russian President Vladimir Putin will be absent from Saturday's memorial service for the late former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
"We know that the main ceremony and funeral will take place on September 3 - but the president's schedule does not allow him to be there," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.
Putin has already gone to the Moscow hospital where Gorbachev died and laid flowers on the coffin.
Gorbachev died on Tuesday at the age of 91.
He led the Soviet Union as its last president from 1985 to 1991.
The funeral service for Gorbachev is to take place on Saturday in the "House of Trade Unions" in the vicinity of the Kremlin.
The former Soviet head of state and party will then be buried next to his wife Raissa in the New Maiden Cemetery.