Russian leaders bid farewell to slain ambassador

MOSCOW - Russian leaders attended a civil funeral service for the slain ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, at the Russian Foreign Ministry building on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, speakers of both parliament houses Valentina Matviyenko and Vyacheslav Volodin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and officials from the presidential administration, parliamentary deputies and diplomats attended the funeral.

Karlov was shot dead by a gunman on Monday at an art exhibition in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

Lavrov handed a Gold Star medal of the Hero of Russia to Karlov's family, the highest prize of the country, awarded to the ambassador posthumously.

After a religious funeral service conducted by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in central Moscow, Karlov will be buried in one of the cemeteries in the capital.