Russia: Gorbachev and Communist Party leader attend Primakov's wake

Mikhail Gorbachev, former leader of the Soviet Union, and Gennadi Zyuganov, leader of Russia's Communist Party were among the officials in attendance at a farewell ceremony for deceased Russian statesman Yevgeni Primakov at House of the Unions in Moscow on Monday. Primakov, a former Russian prime and foreign minister, died in Moscow on Friday. He will be buried at Novodevichy Cemetery. Primakov held a variety of positions during his long career, which spanned both the Soviet and post-Soviet eras. However, he is probably best remembered as Russia's top diplomat, serving in the role between 1996 and 1998. In his time as foreign minister, he ordered his plane turned around mid-flight on his way to Washington, on learning that NATO had started to bomb Yugoslavia. He met with dozens of top-ranked foreign officials during his years at the ministry. Among them were former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the First President of the Palestinian National Authority Yasser Arafat, incumbent Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Mikhail Gorbachev also asked him to negotiate with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in a bid to avert the first Gulf War in 1991. Moreover, Primakov chaired the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and became the first director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, after the Soviet Union's collapse. Boris Yeltsin appointed him prime minister in September 1998 after Primakov's successful tenure at the Foreign Ministry.