Putin, elite bid farewell to Primakov

MOSCOW, June 29, (Agencies): Russia’s president and political elite joined thousands of mourners on Monday in bidding farewell to Yevgeny Primakov, a former prime minister who also served as Russia’s top diplomat and foreign intelligence chief during a long and distinguished career.

Primakov, who died last week at 85, lay in state in the House of the Unions, a columned building near the Kremlin where the state funerals of Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and other Soviet leaders also were held. Among the mourners was 84-year-old Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union.

State television covered the nearly six-hour funeral service live, with commentators and political figures commending Primakov for standing up to the West. He is remembered for his desperate but unsuccessful efforts to avert wars in Iraq and, as prime minister, NATO’s 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia.

President Vladimir Putin said Primakov’s ability to defend Russian interests was “an example of true patriotism and selfless devotion to the fatherland.”

Putin noted Primakov’s deep knowledge of the Middle East and his strong personal contacts with leaders in the region. “The role of Primakov here cannot be overstated,” the president said in addressing the mourners. “His prestige abroad was undeniable.”

Primakov entered politics in 1989, when he became chairman of one of the chambers of the Soviet parliament, helping spearhead Gorbachev’s political reforms.

As the international drumbeat for war against Iraq increased in 1990, Gorbachev sent him as an envoy to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Primakov was said to be the outsider whom Hussein knew best and trusted most.

In 1991, Primakov was named head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service and held the job for five years before becoming foreign minister. As Russia’s top diplomat, he worked hard to dilute the perceived US dominance of world affairs.

Crisis

After being appointed prime minister in 1998, Primakov tried to prevent the NATO air war against Yugoslavia over the Kosovo crisis. He was heading to the United States on an official visit in March 1999 when he learned that Washington had decided to launch the air raids, and ordered his pilots to turn the plane back while it was already halfway over the Atlantic, a bold move that helped bolster his popularity at home.

After Putin became president in 2000, he continued to tap Primakov’s expertise in tackling global crises and made him Russia’s top envoy to Iraq to try to stave off the brewing war in 2003.

Primakov also continued to wield considerable influence as the chairman of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, a Russian business advocacy group, a post he held from 2001 to 2011.

He was to be buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery near the grave of Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first postSoviet president.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin says Putin and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi spent the weekend together at a vacation home in Siberia.

Berlusconi, known to be a close friend of Putin’s, has previously hosted Putin’s family at his villa on the Italian island of Sardinia.

Earlier this year, Berlusconi, 78, was acquitted of charges he paid an underage prostitute for sex and used his influence to cover it up.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted Monday by Russian news agencies as saying Putin, 62, has not had a summer vacation yet but confirmed he and Berlusconi spent the weekend in the Altai region at a vacation compound owned by the gas giant Gazprom.

Berlusconi and Putin met briefly in Rome when Putin was visiting this month.

The US Supreme Court’s move to legalise gay marriages triggered heated debate in Russia on Sunday, with one MP saying Facebook should be blocked while a senator urged the adoption of the US army’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

In a show of support for the US Supreme Court’s historic decision, Facebook introduced a function allowing users to decorate their profiles with the rainbow flag of the gay rights movement and many Russians added a rainbow filter to their photos.

Their opponents immediately came up with a counter move, superimposing a Russian tri-colour against their pictures.

Homophobia remains widespread in the country, and almost no public figures have come out as gay.

Since coming to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012, President Vladimir Putin has forcefully promoted traditional values, seeking to paint Russia as an antithesis to the West.

In 2013, he signed off on a hugely controversial law banning the promotion or display of homosexuality in front of minors.

The US Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage on Friday ignited fresh debate in Russia which is locked in confrontation with the West over Ukraine.

Lawmaker Vitaly Milonov said Facebook should be shut down in Russia while senator Konstantin Dobrynin said it is Milonov who should be banned.

Dobrynin, deputy head of constitutional legislation committee in the parliament’s upper house, said it was necessary to reduce the level of aggression in society towards gays.

“The most important thing is to immediately reduce the intensity of aggression towards sexual minorities,” he wrote in a blog post.