Moscow, 3 September 2022 (dpa/MIA) - A funeral service was being held for Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, in Moscow on Saturday, after he died this week at the age of 91. Thousands of mourners gathered at the House of Trade Unions within sight of the Kremlin in the Russian capital as the coffin containing Gorbachev was displayed. Many of those in the crowd held flowers as they waited to pay their last respects to the Nobel Peace Prize winner. He was to be buried later Saturday next to his wife Raissa in Moscow's Novodevichy cemetery. Unlike for former Russian president Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007), Gorbachev was not given a state funeral. Russian President Vladimir Putin would not attend the ceremony on account of prior engagements, the Kremlin said. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin has a demanding schedule ahead of a trip to Russia's Far East. The internationally respected statesman was often credited for bringing the Cold War to a peaceful end. However, while politicians in the West have praised his services to peace and the reunification of Germany, reactions in Russia were mixed, with many holding the former head of state responsible for the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Despite high regard for Gorbachev in London, Paris and Berlin, the leaders of Western powers were not at the ceremony, as Russian's invasion of Ukraine has soured relations with Moscow. One of few foreign leaders to make the trip was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose attendance was reported by news agency Interfax. Although the West has imposed sanctions on Russia due to Moscow's war on Ukraine, Orban still has a good relationship with Putin. It is not clear whether Orban would meet Putin in Moscow. urkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid his respects in a phone call with Putin, according to the Kremlin. Putin and Erdogan also discussed the war in Ukraine and the situation of the besieged Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in the call, the Kremlin said. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev was in attendance on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported. Opposition politician Grigory Yavlinsky and journalist Dmitry Muratov, who has also been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, were there as well. Germany, which holds Gorbachev in particular esteem for enabling the country's reunification, sent the chargé d'affaires of the German embassy to the funeral. In Germany, flags in front of the chancellor's office in Berlin were hung at half-mast in honour of the funeral. Gorbachev is an honourary citizen of the city of Berlin. Revered in the West for launching "perestroika," the broad restructuring of the communist system that led to the reunification of Germany and Eastern Europe's break from Moscow's yoke, Gorbachev is blamed by many Russians for destroying their Soviet Union and giving free rein to crime, soaring prices and social insecurity. Some of his achievements are undisputed. His "glasnost" - or openness - another term that entered the languages of the world, allowed hundreds of dissidents, banned writers and dissidents to work without fear of persecution or loss of citizenship. Other reforms were destined to fail, such as the democratization of the Communist Party, economic transformation and an anti-alcohol campaign deeply resented by his hard-drinking countrymen and women.