Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev due to scheduling reasons, his spokesman said Thursday.

“The farewell ceremony and the funeral will take place on September 3, but unfortunately the president’s work schedule does not allow him to attend,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov said Putin paid his last respects to Gorbachev at the hospital where he died Tuesday at the age of 91.

Russian state television showed Putin placing a bouquet of red roses next to Gorbachev’s open coffin in a large, empty hall before pausing for a moment of silence.

Putin bowed his head, briefly put his hand on the coffin and then made the sign of the cross.

Gorbachev’s funeral service will be held Saturday in Moscow’s Hypostyle Hall, historically used for funeral services for senior officials including Joseph Stalin in 1953.

On the same day, Gorbachev is buried in the prestigious Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, next to his wife Raisa, who died in 1999.

Peskov said that there would be “elements of a state funeral” for Gorbachev, including an honor guard, and that the ceremony would be organized with the help of the state.

Gorbachev changed the course of history by triggering the fall of the Soviet Union and was one of the great figures of the 20th century.

His reforms as Soviet leader transformed his country and allowed Eastern Europe to break free from Soviet rule.

While the changes he initiated revered him in the West, they earned him the scorn of many Russians after the country plunged into economic chaos and its international influence waned.

Putin, who described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century, has spent much of his 20-plus-year rule undoing parts of Gorbachev’s legacy.

By cracking down on independent media and political opposition, critics say, Putin has worked to thwart Gorbachev’s efforts to inject “glasnost,” or openness, into the Soviet system.

And with the military campaign in Ukraine that began earlier this year, he has sought to reassert Russian influence in one of the countries that gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev’s death prompted a flurry of tributes from the West, but the reaction in Russia was muted, where many blamed him for the country’s loss of status as a global superpower.

In a condolence letter released by the Kremlin, Putin said Gorbachev was “a politician and statesman who had a tremendous influence on the course of world history.”

“He has led our country through a period of complex, dramatic changes, sweeping foreign policy, economic and social challenges,” Putin added.