Putin, elites bid farewell to ex-PM and master spy Primakov

Russia on Monday bade farewell to former prime minister, foreign minister and master spy Yevgeny Primakov, with a state funeral for one of the last Soviet-era political titans who died last week aged 85.

Dignitaries led by President Vladimir Putin paid their last respects to the former prime minister, whose remains lay in state in the House of the Unions in central Moscow flanked by an honour guard.

"Without doubt he was a great citizen of our country," Putin said after laying flowers by the coffin and briefly touching it with his hand.

"His authority was indisputable abroad. He was always the centre of attraction for many people. People talked to him, consulted him, compared notes with him. I can say this is also entirely true about me."

"You are in our hearts. Goodbye," he said, an array of Primakov's medals laid flat on velvet cushions in front of the casket.

Top dignitaries including Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US ambassador John Tefft filed past the coffin in the columned hall of the House of the Unions, where the state funerals of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and other leaders were also held.
"We are not letting you go, grandfather," his grandson, Yevgeny Primakov Junior, said during the ceremony, broadcast on state television in its entirety.

"You will have to serve us as our moral compass," he added before asking the mourners to give the former premier a round of applause, an honour usually reserved for top celebrities in Russia.

Primakov's body was then taken to the 16th-century Novodevichy Monastery where the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill conducted the funeral service as officials looked on, clutching lit candles.

Afterwards the casket covered by a Russian tri-colour flag was carried in an elaborate funeral procession to the adjoining cemetery, with guards goosestepping alongside the coffin and Putin and Russia's elites joining the mourners.

Primakov, who passed away Friday at the age of 85, was considered one of the last of the Soviet-era political giants.

He served as prime minister under Boris Yeltsin in 1998-1999, helping steer the country out of political and economic turmoil after Russia defaulted on August 17, 1998.

-'Serbia will always remember'-

He is perhaps most vividly remembered for turning around his US-bound plane over the Atlantic after learning of NATO's bombing of Serbia in 1999.

The cancellation of the US visit is widely considered a turning point in Russia's foreign policy after Moscow's rapprochement with Washington following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"Serbia will always remember what could not be forgotten, that in its most difficult moments he was a great and proven friend," Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Friday.

Primakov also served as foreign minister between 1996 and 1998 and headed the country's external intelligence agency SVR between 1991 and 1996.

A fluent Arabic speaker and one of the country's foremost experts on the Middle East, he personally knew Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Moamer Kadhafi of Libya and Hafez al-Assad of Syria.

For all his assertive policies Primakov said Russia and the United States should cooperate to tackle terrorism and drug trafficking.