Russian patriarch mourned in Moscow

MOSCOW, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Top Kremlin officials and thousands of others attended the funeral Tuesday for Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexy II.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were among the mourners packed in and around Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, CNN reported.

Alexy, 79, who died Friday after 18 years as head of the church, is credited with a revival of the faith after communist rule and the restoration of thousands of churches, including the Cathedral of Christ, which had been demolished under Joseph Stalin and was rebuilt in the 1990s, RIA Novosti reported.

An Estonian native, Alexy, had been accused by some of collaborating with authorities to persecute Christians before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, CNN reported.