Complexes RuCl 3 (PPh 3 )L 2 (L = MeIm (1a), Im (1b)) and [RuCl 2 (PPh 3 ) 2 (bipy)]Cl 4H 2 O (2) have been synthesized via the ruthenium(III) precursor RuCl 3 (PPh 3 ) 2 (DMA), and characterized, including an X-ray structural analysis for 1a (MeIm = N-methylimidazole, Im = imidazole, bipy = 2,2 -bipyridyl, and DMA = N,N -dimethylacetamide). Crystals of 1a are monoclinic, space group P2 1 n, a = 10.5491(5), b = 20.4934(9), c = 12.8285(4) , β = 90.166(4)°, Z = 4. The structure, which reveals a mer configuration for the chlorides, and cis-methylimidazoles, was solved by conventional heavy atom methods and was refined by full-matrix least-square procedures to R = 0.041 and R w = 0.042 for 3328 reflections withI 3σ(I). From the RuCl 2 (PPh 3 ) 3 precursor, the ruthenium(II) complexes RuCl 2 (PPh 3 ) 2 L 2 and [RuCl(PPh 3 )L 4 ]Cl have been made (L = Im or MeIm), while [RuCl(dppb)Im 3 ]Cl has been made from [RuCl 2 (dppb)] 2 (μ-dppb) (dppb = Ph 2 P(CH 2 ) 4 PPh 2 ).