RUSSIA:Cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich was buried yesterday close to late president Boris Yeltsin. Their widows leaned on each other and wept.
Yeltsin's widow joined Rostropovich's, soprano Galina Vishnyevskaya, at Moscow's Novodevichye cemetery where the musical genius was laid to rest. He died on Friday, aged 80, four days after Yeltsin.
Among about 1,000 mourners were Rostropovich's two daughters as well as the queen of Spain and the wife of the French president, Bernadette Chirac.
A plain wooden Orthodox cross was erected at the grave and wreaths placed around it before mourners applauded the musician. Some kissed his picture at the foot of the grave.
"He was ... a guiding light both as a citizen and as a musician," said pensioner Yelena Zubkovskaya, who came to Rostropovich's funeral service at Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral earlier yesterday. She said she had attended every concert by Rostropovich she could, including the last one before his departure from the Soviet Union in 1974 which, she said, earned him a 10-minute standing ovation.
"Despite his great fame, he was always approachable for people," a Russian Orthodox priest said at the burial.
Soldiers marched slowly along the cemetery's central alley strewn with red roses before the coffin was brought in. The sun came out in cold, damp Moscow as he was buried.
More than 4,500 people, said RIA agency, attended the funeral service. Rostropovich was one of Russia's best-loved cultural figures and considered among the world's greatest cellists. He also earned a reputation internationally as a champion of civil rights during Soviet rule.