KRASNOYARSK (voa) – Russia has buried Krasnoyarsk governor Alexander Lebed, who died in a helicopter crash Sunday.
President Vladimir Putin, wearing an armband of mourning and looking somber, joined mourners to pay his last respects. He laid red roses by Mr. Lebed’s coffin.
The coffin was later carried through throngs of people to Moscow’s elite Novodevichy Cemetery where Mr. Lebed was buried with military honors.
Meanwhile, Russian Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Shoigu, appointed by President Vladimir Putin to head the commission investigating the crash, confirmed it was caused by poor visibility. Mr. Shoigu said that the last recorded words from the flight voice recorder were “Power line, power line!” However, other officials say other theories about the crash are still being investigated.
Alexander Lebed, widely-admired by many Russians for his patriotism and straightforward remarks, was one of Russia’s most prominent politicians in the 1990s.
The 52-year-old general-turned-politician won a top medal in the Soviet war in Afghanistan and helped defeat the 1991 coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, finished third in Russia’s 1996 presidential elections.
Mr. Lebed is also credited with brokering an end to Moscow’s 1994-1996 war in Chechnya and ending a civil war in Moldova. He was elected governor of the vast Krasnoyarsk region in Russia’s Far East in 1998. He is survived by his wife Inna and three children.
