Thousands of Russians paid their respects to Boris Yeltsin on Tuesday as he lay in state in a Moscow cathedral, honouring the controversial leader they said had ultimately won them freedom amid fears that his death came as that legacy was being undone.

Many in the queue snaking around Moscow’s vast Christ the Saviour cathedral had taken to the streets with the country's first freely elected president as he stood atop a tank to face down a coup on August 19 1991 and in doing so changed the course of history. One by one the intelligentsia, who came out in force in August 1991 but kept a low profile during the economic change of the Yeltsin years, came out to pay tribute.