Russia to bury ex-President Boris Yeltsin

MOSCOW, Apr 25 (Reuters) Russia today was burying Boris Yeltsin, the charismatic reformer who smashed the Soviet Union and bowed out of the Kremlin eight years later with his country free but in chaos.

Underlining his mixed legacy as the first president of independent Russia, mourners taking a final opportunity to view his coffin at a Moscow cathedral praised him as a father of democracy but there was no outpouring of national grief.

In a break with the past that fitted Yeltsin's maverick style, he was to be buried not alongside previous Kremlin leaders on Red Square but at the capital's Novodevichye cemetery alongside actors, writers and performers.

Former US President Bill Clinton, who forged a close personal relationship with Yeltsin in the 1990s, was to attend the funeral, along with about a dozen former and serving heads of state and senior foreign officials.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was to lead mourners at a funeral service expected to start at 1:00 p.m. 1430 ist.

Yeltsin's open coffin was lying in state at the cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which was blown up by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and rebuilt under Yeltsin to symbolise Russia's re-birth.

Several hundred people who wanted to pay their respects were turned away when the cathedral was closed for the service. About 20,000 people filed past Yeltsin's coffin in the past day.

But most people in Moscow, a city of more than 15 million, went about their daily lives.

Many Russians blame Yeltsin for forfeiting the country's superpower states, for a disastrous war in Chechnya and for reforms that that made citizens' savings worthless and handed state assets to a tiny band of favoured businessmen.

''My mum thought Yeltsin was great because he gave us democracy.

My dad hates him because he thinks he ruined a great country. I came here to have a last chance to see this man,'' said Marina Shestakova, a student.

MOURNING Yeltsin died from heart failure on Monday at the age of 76.

In his last years in office, heart problems -- and reported drinking binges -- made him an ailing and distant figure who was prone to embarrassing gaffes.

Putin rolled back many of his predecessor's reforms, tightening Kremlin control over the economy, politics and the media. Most Russians applauded Putin because for them, the flowering of freedom under Yeltsin felt like anarchy.

Putin, whom Yeltsin handpicked to succeed him, declared today a day of national mourning.

Flags were flying at half mast. State television was showing live pictures from the lying-in-state and footage from Yeltsin's life set to sombre music.

Izvestia newspaper said Yeltsin was to buried in a plot next to Soviet-era illusionist Igor Kio, ballerina Galina Ulanova and actor Yevgeny Urbansky, whose biggest role was in a film called ''Communist'' where he played a construction boss.

Yeltsin's son-in-law Valentin Yumashev asked for him to be buried next to cultural figures, not alongside officials and generals, the newspaper reported.

Yeltsin was hailed around the world as a hero as he took on the Soviet establishment, at one point in 1991 climbing on a tank to rally a crowd against hardline coup leaders who wanted to turn back the perestroika reforms.

Months later, he was the driving force behind an agreement to split up the Soviet Union into independent states. His supporters said history would judge him for those achievements.

''We were together,'' said Nina, 64, as she waited to see his coffin, her eyes welling with tears. ''I was there in 1991 when he climbed onto a tank. He was one of us.'' REUTERS ABM RK1508