The message reads, in part:

"The death of Academician Gonchar is a terrible loss to Russian science. He was an outstanding mathematician, a recognised authority on the theory of functions and approximation theory. The results of his fundamental work are widely recognised in Russia and throughout the world.

"Andrei Gonchar was appreciated by his colleagues for his talents as an organiser and by his followers for the time and effort he put into training young researchers.

"Mr Gonchar will be always remembered as a wonderful man by those who knew and respected him."