This study reports the isolation and the structural (X-ray), UV-vis, and NMR characterization of aseries of electron-rich Ru(II) acetylide complexes of the formula (G SRC="/images/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >2-dppe)(ges/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >5-C5Me5)Ru(Cges/entities/tbd1.gif">C)-1,4-(C6H4)X (1a-f; X = NO2, CN, F, H, OMe, NH2) and (ges/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >2-dppe)(ges/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >5-C5Me5)Ru(Cges/entities/tbd1.gif">C)-1,3-(C6H4)F(1c-m), as well as the spectroscopic (near-IR and ESR) in situ characterization of the correspondingelusive Ru(III) radical cations. The spectroscopic data are discussed in connection with DFT computations,and a consistent picture of the electronic structure of these Ru(II) and Ru(III) acetylide complexes isproposed. Notably, the strong reactivity of the Ru(III) radicals evidenced in this contribution constitutesa major difference with the relative stability of the known iron analogues.