Putin Pays His Respects in Ufa

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, July 09, 2002

Putin Pays His Respects in Ufa

President Vladimir Putin made an unannounced visit Monday to Ufa to pay respects to dozens of local children killed in an air crash over Germany and buried earlier in the day.

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President Vladimir Putin made an unannounced visit Monday to Ufa to pay respects to dozens of local children killed in an air crash over Germany and buried earlier in the day.

Orthodox and Muslim clergymen offered prayers for those killed in last week's crash, in which 44 Ufa schoolchildren perished. The victims' families then gathered privately for quiet burials out of the public eye, hours after 33 coffins were delivered to Ufa.

Television reports showed mourners, some clutching each other and weeping, others holding photographs of victims aloft, clustered around flower-laden wooden coffins.

In all, 71 people were killed when a Bashkirian Airlines Tu-154 bound for Barcelona, Spain, slammed into a Boeing cargo jet operated by DHL over Lake Constance on Germany's border with Switzerland.

Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan, has been hit especially hard by the accident. The 44 Ufa children included many leading students and athletes from city schools.

Bashkortostan Prime Minister Rafail Baidavletov read a message of sympathy at the ceremony and said a similar memorial would be held Friday, when 28 more bodies are to be returned to Ufa.

Putin, who was traveling in the provinces, made an unscheduled stop in Ufa, the Kremlin press service confirmed. News agencies said he went immediately to the cemetery from the airport.

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