Moscow, Dec 22 (IANS) Russian leaders on Thursday attended a state funeral service for slain ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov at the Russian Foreign Ministry building here.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Speakers of both houses of Parliament Valentina Matviyenko and Vyacheslav Volodin, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, besides other key officials and diplomats attended the funeral.
Lavrov gave a Gold Star medal of the Hero of Russia to Karlov's family, the highest prize of the country, awarded to the ambassador posthumously.
Karlov was shot dead by a gunman on Monday at an art exhibition in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
After a religious funeral service conducted by head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in central Moscow, Karlov was buried at the Khimki cemetery in northern Moscow.
