Due to a conflict with his work schedule, Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend Mikhail Gorbachev's funeral on Saturday, the Kremlin said.

On a call with reporters on Thursday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin had paid his respects to the last leader of the Soviet Union earlier that morning.

"Before leaving [for Kaliningrad], the president stopped at the Central Clinical Hospital and said goodbye to Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev," Peskov said, according to Russian state-run news outlet RBC.

"We know that the general farewell ceremony will take place on Sept. 3, the funeral, but, unfortunately, the president's work schedule will not allow it to be done on Sept. 3, so he decided to do it today," Peskov added.

Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR, died at Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital on Tuesday following a long illness. He was 91.

Gorbachev will not receive an official state funeral, according to Peskov, but his funeral will have "elements" of a state funeral, including an honor guard. He also said the government was helping to organize the funeral.

According to the Gorbachev Foundation, the last Soviet leader will be buried in Moscow's Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife, Raisa.

The Kremlin previously said it could not confirm if Putin would attend Gorbachev's funeral.

Video footage of Putin paying his respects to Gorbachev was broadcast on state television and showed him laying a bouquet of red flowers next to a black and white portrait of Gorbachev. The Russian president made the sign of the cross and bowed twice.

While celebrated in the West for his role in ending the Cold War, Gorbachev was unpopular with many Russians, who blamed him for plunging the country into economic turmoil with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

According to Newsweek, Putin called the collapse of the communist state in 1991 the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century."

In a statement on Wednesday, Putin called Gorbachev "a statesman who had an enormous impact on the course of world history." 

Putin also said Gorbachev headed the country during "a period of complex, dramatic changes." His predecessor led the USSR from March 1985 to August 1991.

Following his death, Duma deputy Leonid Slutsky called Gorbachev the "brightest" politician of his time, but, in a caveat on his Telegram channel, said that "for all those born in the Soviet Union, he remains a complex and controversial historical figure."

• Gorbachev Remembered Fondly in Germany for Enabling Unity
• Kremlin Offers Mixed View of Gorbachev's Historic Role