Europe 1 with AFP 12:28 p.m., September 01, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral on Saturday of the last leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, who died at the age of 91, the Kremlin spokesman said Thursday.

"We know that the main ceremony will be on September 3, as well as the funeral, but the president's schedule will not allow him to be there," Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that Vladimir Putin had already went to the Moscow hospital where Mikhail Gorbachev died to "place flowers near his coffin".

>> More information to follow...