Putin snubs Gorbachev? Pays tribute but won't attend his funeral. Here's why

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending the funeral ceremony of Mikhail Gorbachev, denying the man who ended the cold war, full state honours. Gorbachev is remembered in the West for allowing eastern Europe to escape Soviet communist control but scorned in Russia for allowing the country to plunge into chaos after his reforms. Remember, Putin has called the fall of the Soviet Union has the greatest catastrophe of the 20th Century.