YALTA, November 18. /TASS/. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has attended a gala ceremony in the Crimean city of Yalta on Saturday, unveiling a monument to Russian Tsar Alexander III (1845-1894).

The Menshikov Palace, the first large structure built with stone in St. Petersburg, was constructed for Prince Alexander Menshikov, a close associate of Peter the Great, in the early 1700s.