Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday clarified that the funeral would have "elements" of a state funeral, including a guard of honour.
Nevertheless, it will be a marked contrast to the funeral of Yeltsin, who was instrumental in sidelining Gorbachev as the Soviet Union fell apart and hand-picked Putin, a career KGB intelligence officer, as the man most suited to succeed him.
When Yeltsin died in 2007, Putin declared a national day of mourning and, alongside world leaders, attended a grand state funeral in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
Gorbachev's foundation said the funeral would begin at 12 noon (0900 GMT), not 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) as previously announced.
Putin will not attend the funeral
Kremlin spokesperson also mentioned that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend Saturday’s funeral for the last Soviet leader.
"Unfortunately, the president's work schedule will not allow him to do this on Sept. 3, so he decided to do it today," he said on Thursday.
State television on Thursday showed Putin solemnly placing red roses beside Gorbachev's coffin - left open as is traditional in Russia - in Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital.
It took Putin more than 15 hours after Gorbachev's death to publish a restrained message of condolence that said Gorbachev had had a "huge impact on the course of world history" and "deeply understood that reforms were necessary" to tackle the problems of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader who was also behind the end of the Cold War without any bloodshed died on Tuesday at the age of 91. However, the leader was unable to prevent the fall of the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev was idolised in the West for allowing eastern Europe to escape Soviet communist control but unloved at home for the chaos that his "perestroika" reforms unleashed.
(With inputs from agencies)
