Russian hardliners not to pay tributes to Yeltsin

MOSCOW: A number of hardline Communist and nationalist members of Russian parliament on Wednesday refused to pay tributes to the country's first popularly elected president Boris Yeltsin, who died of heart failure on Monday.

Many Communist and nationalist members of State Duma (lower house of parliament) refused to stand up and observe a minutes silence in memory of Yeltsin.

As the Deputy Speaker Oleg Morozov proposed to begin the proceeding with one-minute silence by standing up to pay tributes to Yeltsin, several MPs on the Opposition benches including Communists and Rodina (motherland) faction remained seated, Radio Mayak said.

Yeltsin (76), who ran the country through the turbulent 1990s (1991 to 1999), has been both praised as a champion of democratic reforms and criticised for condemning millions of people to poverty due to his ill-conceived economic reforms dubbed by his opponents as "shock without therapy".

Yeltsin, a flamboyant leader who died in relative obscurity on Monday, will be buried alongside eminent Russians at Moscow's historic Novodevichy cemetery following ceremonies in the golden-domed Christ the Saviour cathedral.

Novodevichy cemetery, where Yeltsin will be laid to rest, is Moscow's most famous burial place, including the graves of playwright Anton Chekhov and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

The ex-president will lie in a section traditionally reserved for outstanding Soviet and Russian military men.

The cathedral where a memorial service is to take place is recreation a church demolished under Stalin and rebuilt under Yeltsin.