Russia mourns ice hockey team air disaster

An ageing Yak-42 plane carrying three-time Russian champions Lokomotiv Yaroslavl -- a popular team with several ex-NHL stars on its roster -- crashed yesterday near Yaroslavl, 300 kilometres northeast of Moscow.

A sombre Medvedev said on a visit to the crash site in the rundown sleepy village of Tunoshna that Russia could not continue suffering from apparently avoidable air disasters and may have to switch to foreign-made planes.

"This is a shock for the entire country," said Medvedev after placing flowers at the bank of the local river, the wreckage of the plane lying in the water nearby.

"The situation remains unfortunate, and a string of air crashes which happened this summer shows that. We cannot go on like that," he said.

The accident claimed the lives of several international players who made their careers in the National Hockey League and previously won Olympic medals, with hundreds of stunned fans also filling city squares in Prague and Trencin, Slovakia.

At a much more choreographed event, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko pulled on a hockey uniform in leading more than 10,000 people at a remembrance ceremony in the Minsk arena at which Yaroslavl was due to play today.

"The most frightening thing of all is that they were flying here, to us -- to this wonderful arena, flying as our best friends," the hockey-mad Lukashenko said in a speech he delivered on ice skates from inside the rink.

"These are our blood brothers," Lukashenko said before making a motion as if to wipe away a tear.

Lukashenko -- once dubbed Europe's last dictator by the United States -- has attempted to repair his relations with Russia in recent times of economic crisis and often uses grand occasions to make political statements.

But the deep emotions running through the Minsk stadium left many fans openly weeping as Mozart's Requiem played and life-size posters of the players stood on the ice.

The state of shock in the ancient Russian city of Yaroslavl appeared just as palpable after the worst sporting disaster in the country's recent memory.

In a grim twist of fate, the crash occurred on the eve of the Russian president's scheduled visit to Yaroslavl to address a closely watched political conference at the hockey team's home arena.

By the time Medvedev arrived to make his speech the venue had turned into a shrine, with thousands of locals placing heaps of roses and team scarves at its walls.