September 2, Friday, 2022 (1:30 p.m.) Newsline

1.Russia’s presidential office says President Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of Mikhail Gorvachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union. Gorvachev, who brought the Cold War to an end, died on Tuesday at the age of 91. His funeral is scheduled to take place on Saturday in Moscow.
2.A survey by an independent Russian polling organization shows that the public in the country is divided over whether Moscow should continue its military actions in Ukraine or engage in peace negotiations. The Levada-Center has been conducting face-to-face interviews with more than 1,600 people in Russia toward the end of every month since the invasion of Ukraine began.
3.Students in Ukraine and Russia have received special visitors to start their school terms. They welcomed in the leaders of their countries. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited a school in Irpin on Thursday that, like thousands of others, was damaged in the fighting. In Kaliningrad on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin had his own message for students. He used a back-to-school ceremony to talk about the invasion of Ukraine, which he calls the “special military operation.” He said people in “the territory of Ukraine” have begun to create an “anti-Russian enclave that threatens our country.”