Boris Yeltsin laid to rest

Former US Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Sir John Major joined foreign dignitaries at church services and a funeral procession through Moscow's streets to the landmark Novodevichy Cemetery, paying respects to Yeltsin during a day of mourning and symbolism.

"The whole dramatic history of the 20th century was reflected in the fate of Boris Nikolayevich," Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II wrote in a letter that was read aloud during services at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

"Being a strong individual, he took upon himself responsibility the fate of the country at a difficult and dangerous time of radical change."

Yeltsin's anointed successor - Vladimir Putin - played a low-key role, attending the church service and marching with his wife Lyudmila in the burial procession. At a Kremlin reception hours after the burial, he promised to pursue his predecessor's goals. "He sincerely tried to do everything to make the lives of millions of Russians better," Putin said. "We will move toward these goals."

Before the burial, more than 20,000 people filed through the gold-domed cathedral, which is the site of the Orthodox Church's most important services, to view Yeltsin's body.

Following an 85-minute ceremony that echoed with priests' chanting and a choir singing funeral liturgy, the coffin - draped in the Russian tricolour - was driven in a black Mercedes hearse on a winding four-mile procession through the city centre and along the Moscow River.

An armoured military truck then drew the army-green caisson the final steps to Novodevichy along a carnation-strewn lane, escorted by a goose-stepping honour guard and a crowd of foreign dignitaries and church leaders.

With the coffin resting on a metal cart, Yeltsin's tearful widow Naina stroked her husband's shock of white hair and tenderly kissed his forehead and cheeks. White-robed Orthodox priests chanted prayers and swung censers before pallbearers closed the coffin and lowered it into the ground.

Yeltsin, who died of heart failure Monday at age 76, pulled the country out from the Soviet Union and pushed it into a fitful democracy, seeking to inject pluralism and vigour to Russia after decades of Communist repression and stagnation.