Photostream : Former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin buried in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev (L) and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (C) pay their respects to former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin during a memorial service at the Novodevichy monastery in Moscow, November 5, 2010. The longest serving Prime Minister in post-Soviet Russia, Chernomyrdin died on Wednesday at the age of 72. (Getty Images / REUTERS/RIA Novosti/Kremlin/Alexsey Druginyn )

Honour guards stand at attention next to the coffin of former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin during a commemoration ceremony in Moscow, November 5, 2010. The longest serving Prime Minister in post-Soviet Russia, Chernomyrdin died on Wednesday at the age of 72. (Getty Images / REUTERS/Pool/Mikhail Metzel )

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev (C), Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (R) and Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill walk behind the coffin of former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin during his funeral at Novodevichy monastery in Moscow, November 5, 2010. The longest serving Prime Minister in post-Soviet Russia, Chernomyrdin died on Wednesday at the age of 72. (Getty Images / REUTERS / RIA Novosti / Pool/Alexsey Druginyn )

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev (R) walks behind the coffin of former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin during his funeral at Novodevichy monastery in Moscow, November 5, 2010. The longest serving Prime Minister in post-Soviet Russia, Chernomyrdin, died on Wednesday at the age of 72. (Getty Images /REUTERS/RIA Novosti/Kremlin/Mikhail Klimentyev )

From left, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill are seen during the funeral of former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Nov. 5, 2010. Viktor Chernomyrdin, who served as Russia's prime minister in the turbulent 1990s as the country was throwing off communism and developing as a market economy, died Wednesday. (Getty Images / AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Mikhail Klimentyev, Presidential Press Servicel)

Former Russian Prime Minister Chernomyrdin to be buried in elite cemetery

Former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin

November 03, 2010 (KATAKAMI / RIA NOVOSTI) --- Former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who died aged 72 on Wednesday morning, will be laid to rest in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery, a Russian TV channel said on Wednesday.

Chernomyrdin will be buried beside his wife Valentina, who died in March, the Rossiya 24 channel said.
The cemetery, which lies beside a baroque 16th and 17th century convent, is the traditional resting place for Russia's elite.

It hosts a number of Russian and Soviet politicians, such as Boris Yeltsin and Nikita Khrushchev, as well as literary figures such as Nikolai Gogol and Anton Chekhov.

After serving as Russian prime minister under Yeltsin from 1992-1998, Chernomyrdin was made Russian ambassador to Ukraine in 2001, a post he held until 2009, when he was designated as a presidential advisor.

MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti)

Former Russian PM Chernomyrdin dies aged 72

Former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin

November 03, 2010 (KATAKAMI / RIA NOVOSTI) --- Former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin died early on Wednesday morning at the age of 72, a source in the political establishment said.

"Chernomyrdin died at 4 am Moscow time [01:00 GMT]. He had been severely ill," the source said.
After serving as Russian prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin from 1992-1998, Chernomyrdin was made Russian ambassador to Ukraine in 2001, a post he held until 2009, when he was designated as a presidential advisor.

Chernomyrdin was a steadfast supporter of Yeltsin and supporter of privatization and a number of other reforms, although he started his career by opposing many economic changes.

He was minister of the oil and gas industries during the late 1980s and helped to turn the ministry into the state-owned gas company Gazprom in 1989. He was the company’s first chairman of the board, a post which he retained on-and-off until 2000, and his stake in the company made him one of Russia’s richest men.

Chernomyrdin is best known in the Russian-speaking world for his colorful use of language and coined the now popular proverb "we wanted the best, but it turned out as always," uttered after the Russian Central Bank carried out an unsuccessful monetary exchange in the early 1990s.

MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti)