MOSCOW: Russia bid solemn farewell on Wednesday to Boris Yeltsin with an ornate state funeral at which President Vladimir Putin and two former US presidents paid tribute to the man who brought democracy to the ruins of the Soviet Union.
After lengthy ceremonies in Moscow's gold-domed Christ the Saviour cathedral, chanting Orthodox priests led Yeltsin's weeping family to a 16th century convent where he was buried alongside the remains of other celebrated Russians, including playwright Anton Chekhov.
The open coffin was carried to the Novodevichy convent on an olive-green gun carriage, with Putin and former US presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush among the mourners following behind. Yeltsin's two daughters supported his widow Naina as she kissed her husband a final goodbye.
Then the coffin was shut and lowered into the ground to the accompaniment of three artillery salvos and the national anthem.
As many as 35,000 people, according to state television, had earlier paid their last respects at Christ the Saviour, a cavernous cathedral built while Yeltsin was in office in the 1990s as a replica of a religious landmark destroyed by Joseph Stalin six decades earlier.
Yeltsin died aged 76 on Monday from a heart attack. The elaborate, national televised funeral and day of mourning reflected Yeltsin's huge impact on his country.—AFP
