Gun salute as Russians bid farewell to Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin's sobbing widow stooped over his open coffin to kiss his face yesterday moments before the first president of independent Russia was buried with full state honors.

Watched by mourners including President Vladimir Putin, former US president Bill Clinton and Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, Yeltsin's wife of 50 years Naina spent a minute caressing his face, flanked by her weeping daughters.

An artillery battery outside the walls of the Novodevichye cemetery fired three salvoes and the Russian national anthem sounded as his coffin was lowered into the ground.