BBC News Online: World: Europe

Russia adopts new anthem

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has signed a law formally restoring the music of the old Soviet national anthem for a new Russian one.

It will replace the anthem chosen by Mr Putin's predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, which never caught on.

The stirring tune of the old Soviet anthem had been selected by the former communist leader Josef Stalin.

But many Russians strongly opposed re-instating it, saying it resurrected Russia's bloody past.

There are reports that new words for the anthem will be written by the man who wrote the old Soviet one, the eighty-seven-year-old poet Sergei Mikhalkov; officially the new words are to be selected in a competition.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service