Condensation of bis(2-aminophenyl)disulphide with aromatic aldehydes yielded the corresponding dithiophenyldiimines. Dinuclear ruthenium complexes were obtained by reacting the diimines (9) [bis(2-hydroxybenzaldehyde)-phenyldisulphide diimine], with RuCl 3 in the presence of L (L ¼ 2,2 0 -bipyridine, 1,10-phenanthroline, 3,4-diaminotoluene, pyridine and PPh 3 ) in EtOH. The two metal centres, connected through bridging chlorides, are in octahedral environments with one metal centre coordinated to sulphur and water while the other is coordinated to L.