RUSSIA: FUNERAL OF MURDERED POLITICIAN UPDATE скачать в хорошем качестве

RUSSIA: FUNERAL OF MURDERED POLITICIAN UPDATE

(24 Nov 1998) Russian/Nat Thousands of politicians and ordinary Russians turned out for the funeral of Galina Starovoitova in the city of St. Petersburg on Tuesday. Starovoitova, Russia's most prominent female politician and an extremely outspoken democrat, was shot dead at her St. Petersburg apartment early on Saturday morning. Her family had intended a quiet ceremony, but the large crowd, many prominent politicians among them, saw her honoured as a martyr to democratic ideals. Vast crowds of mourners came to pay their respects to Galina Starovoitova on Tuesday, undeterred by the cold. The number of people attending - which included both ordinary Russians and former prime ministers - was a graphic demonstration of the depth of national feeling her death has produced. Her murder remains a mystery, although her aide, seriously injured in the attack, has regained consciousness and is helping police with their enquiries. The murder of Starovoitova, one of the country's leading liberal reformers, has rocked Russia. The public shock at the killing led to her being accorded the rare honour of a large public funeral at St. Petersburg's Ethnography Museum. Russians say her death has brought home to them how infused with lawlessness Russia's society and politics are. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) "All our youth and all of our hopes were connected to people just like Starovoitova. Many of us were hoping that someday she would become President. This, of course, will never happen. You see what has happened instead. It is terrible." SUPER CAPTION: Vera Grigoriovna, St. Petersburg resident SOUNDBITE: (Russian) "Why is our government still afraid to bring order to this nation? It was already time for this a long time ago -- to bring things under control. And, of course, the result of this chaos is this killing and not only this killing but so many others." SUPER CAPTION: Boris Arkadiyev, St. Petersburg resident The burial was delayed several hours as the crowd, estimated at up to 10-thousand people, demanded a chance to pay their final respects. Several of the mourners tried to force their way into the hall where Starovoitova's body lay in an open coffin. Order was only restored after pleas for calm from priests and the military. Inside hundreds of people, including many of the country's most prominent political figures, packed the grand Marble Hall of the museum for the funeral itself. Among speakers at the service were former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Yuri Yarov, President Boris Yeltsin's first deputy chief of staff, who represented the president at the service. An open casket, cloaked with black ribbons and flanked by a military honour guard, stood at the head of the hall. At the end of the service, mourners passed it as classical music played. By then the crowds outside, honouring her now as a martyr to democratic ideals had been subdued. Starovoitova was initially going to be buried in a simple cemetery in the St. Petersburg suburb where her family lives. But as outrage mounted over her killing, the government announced that she would be interred in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in the city's centre - the resting place of some of Russia's greatest heroes. The cemetery holds such famous Russians as the composer Peter Tchaikovsky and the author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Political sparks are already beginning to fly over the killing as various factions blame one another. Economic reformer Anatoly Chubais told reporters that he thought the communists, longtime enemies of Starovoitova, were to blame for her death. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...