Russia to bury former President Yeltsin - Yahoo! News UK

Russia to bury former President Yeltsin - Yahoo! News UK: "Russia to bury former President Yeltsin" By Christian Lowe Reuters - Wednesday, April 25MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will bury former President Boris Yeltsin on Wednesday and observe a day of national mourning for the man who dismantled the Soviet Union and led Russia in its first chaotic years of independence. (Advertisement) In a break with the past that fitted Yeltsin's maverick style, he was to be buried not alongside previous Kremlin leaders on Red Square but at the capital's Novodevichye cemetery near to composer Dmitry Shostakovich and writer Anton Chekhov. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton -- who forged a close personal relationship with Yeltsin in the 1990s -- was to attend the funeral, along with about a dozen former and serving heads of state and senior foreign officials. The funeral service was to be held around midday (0800 GMT) at the cathedral of Christ the Saviour, a church blown up by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and rebuilt under Yeltsin in a potent symbol of Russia's rebirth. Yeltsin died from heart failure on Monday at the age of 76. Vladimir Putin ordered a state funeral for the former president.