The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, will be buried in a Moscow ceremony on Saturday, but without the fanfare of a state funeral and with the glaring absence of President Vladimir Putin.

With Russia isolated by its military campaign in Ukraine, no foreign head of state is expected to attend this relatively low-key event to commemorate one of the great political figures of the 20th century.

Gorbachev – affectionately known as Gorby in the West – died Tuesday at the age of 91 after a “serious and long illness,” the hospital where he was treated said.

Gorbachev, in power between 1985 and 1991, attempted to transform the Soviet Union with democratic reforms, but eventually also initiated its downfall.

In Russia, many accuse him of having let go of the Soviet empire and with it the country’s position as a world power.

But in the West, Gorbachev is seen as the man who ended the Cold War and raised the Iron Curtain – achievements that earned him the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize.

Gorbachev championed freedom and democratic reform, and sought closer ties with Western nations, a legacy critics say Putin has dismantled during his more than two decades in power.

– “Elements” of the State Funeral –

There will be no national day of mourning for Gorbachev – as is customary with the deaths of Soviet and Russian leaders – and the ceremony will have only “elements” of a state funeral, such as an honor guard, according to the Kremlin.

Gorbachev will be buried in the columned hall in a historic building in central Moscow that was traditionally used for the funerals of high officials, including Joseph Stalin in 1953.

The ceremony is set to begin at 0700 GMT and will be open to the public, according to the Gorbachev Foundation.

He will be buried the same day in Moscow’s prestigious Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife Raisa, who died prematurely of cancer in 1999.

Although it has not yet been announced who will attend the funeral, the Kremlin has…