Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, his spokesman said 

“The farewell ceremony and funeral will take place on September 3 but unfortunately the president’s work schedule will not allow him (to attend),” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that Putin had paid his last respects to Gorbachev at the hospital where he died on Tuesday, aged 91.