Russian ex-president Yeltsin dies

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Russian ex-president Yeltsin dies
Boris Yeltsin, who played a key role in the Soviet Union's demise and became Russia's first president, has died aged 76, the Kremlin says.
Mr Yeltsin - who had a history of heart trouble - died of heart failure in hospital at 1545 (1145 GMT).

He came to power after being promoted by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, a man he then outmanoeuvred.

He won international acclaim as a defender of democracy when in August 1991 he mounted a tank in Moscow.

In what became one of the defining moments of his career, Mr Yeltsin rallied the people against an attempt to overthrow Mr Gorbachev's era of glasnost and perestroika.

In another episode of high drama, two years later he ordered Russian tanks to fire on their own parliament in October 1993, when the building was occupied by hardline political opponents.


YELTSIN KEY DATES
July 1990 : Resigns from Communist Party
June 1991 : Elected president of Russian republic (in USSR)
August 1991 : Rallies citizens against anti-Gorbachev coup, bans Russian communist party
December 1991 : Takes over from Mikhail Gorbachev as head of state
1992 : Lifts price controls, launches privatisation
October 1993 : Russia on brink of civil war, Yeltsin orders tanks to fire at parliament
December 1994 : Sends tanks into Chechnya
June 1996 : Re-elected as Russian president, suffers heart attack during campaign
1998 : Financial crisis, rouble loses 75% of its value
December 1999 : Resigns, appoints Vladimir Putin successor


But Mr Yeltsin, who became Russia's first democratically-elected leader after Mr Gorbachev resigned in December 1991, saw his final years in office overshadowed by increasingly erratic behaviour and plummeting popularity as the economy suffered.

Bouts of ill-health were accompanied by rumours of a drinking problem, exhibited most famously when Mr Yeltsin grabbed a conductor's baton in Berlin and, apparently inebriated, tried to sing along with the orchestra.

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall says despite his unpredictability, Boris Yeltsin remained a reliable Western ally, even when relations grew icy over Nato's military action against Yugoslavia in 1999.

He announced his retirement in the final hours of 1999, handing over to former secret service chief Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time.

Mr Yeltsin may have disappointed Russians by bringing them neither peace nor prosperity, our correspondent says.

But, she adds, he did help end 70 years of Soviet Communism, and that, in the long run, is what he will probably be remembered for.

Mr Gorbachev paid a mixed tribute to his successor, saying Mr Yeltsin was responsible for "many great deeds for the good of the country and serious mistakes", Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

Mr Putin has telephoned Mr Yeltsin's widow, Naina, to express his condolences.

The US White House praised Mr Yeltsin as an "historic figure during a time of great change and challenge for Russia".

A funeral for the former Russian president will take place at Moscow's Novodevichy cemetery on Wednesday 25 April.

President Putin has also declared that a day of national mourning.

"We will do everything we can to ensure that the memory of Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, his noble thoughts and his words ''take care of Russia' serve as a moral and political benchmark for us," he said in a televised address.

Chechen debacle

Mr Yeltsin's eight years in power brought immense changes to Russia.


I cannot shift the blame for Chechnya... I made the decision, therefore I am responsible
Boris Yeltsin

He banned the Communist Party, introduced a new constitution which concentrated all real power in the hands of the president, and presided over Russia's troubled mass privatisation in the early 1990s.
The BBC's Russian affairs analyst, Steven Eke, says under the Yeltsin leadership, Russians were given greater political and civic freedoms than they had ever enjoyed.

The media, especially television, were able to criticise the authorities, even the president, in a way they would no longer consider possible, he says.

But history may judge Mr Yeltsin's actions towards the rebellious region of Chechnya much more harshly, he adds.

In 1994, Mr Yeltsin launched a disastrous large-scale military intervention in the breakaway republic, pledging to crush resistance in days.

Instead, a bloody war of attrition ensued, which left tens of thousands of people dead, and the north Caucasus permanently destabilised

Speaking in an interview with Russian television in 2000, Mr Yeltsin said that he saw the lives lost in Chechnya as the biggest responsibility he had to bear.

But he added that there had been no alternative and that Russia had to act against Chechen separatists.

"I cannot shift the blame for Chechnya, for the sorrow of numerous mothers and fathers," he said. "I made the decision, therefore I am responsible."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6584481.stm

Published: 2007/04/23 18:34:02 GMT

© BBC MMVII

 

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Yeltsin era: The highs and lows
BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall was based in Moscow during Boris Yeltsin's turbulent time in power.
In this BBC News 24 transcript, she reflects on the political career of the former Russian president.


Q: Bridget, as someone who was in Moscow for much of the time during the Yeltsin era, this news has taken everybody pretty much by surprise.

A: Well he was known not to have been in good health. Throughout the 1990s there were constant rumours of heart attacks, of medication, of how long he would last.

But when he went into retirement at the end of 1999, perhaps getting rid of all the cares of government, he seemed to feel a bit better and he led a very quiet retirement. But the reports were that he was doing better than he had before. Even so, no-one was expecting his death now.

Q: What was it like being a foreign correspondent, based in Moscow during Yeltsin's time?


There were a lot of people who believed that the shock therapy that he introduced was probably what Russia needed
Bridget Kendall

A: Well, I remember him first before he was president in 1989, when he had been sacked by Gorbachev, who started all the reforms of perestroika (restructuring). He reinvented himself as an opposition politician, got elected to a new Russian parliament which was a sort of experimental, very first parliament in the Soviet Union - and fell in with reformers.

One of my first memories of him is of a very tall, handsome man at the time - he was a big man and he always had very well-cut suits and he was a pall-bearer at the funeral of the dissident, Andrei Sakharov. So at that point he had a very different profile from the one he was to have later as president or even now as retired president.


I did come across him when he was president, we used to have press conferences with him - sometimes meet him.


As the 90s went on, he became aware that he was sort of losing his grip really - he wasn't nearly this handsome, healthy figure who was there in the late 80s. He was replaced by a president on a lot of medication, though at times seemed to have had rather too much vodka round the table when he came out to greet the journalists at the press conference and was something of an embarrassment to Russians, I think, by the time he left office.

Q: It would be a great shame if he were remembered purely for those chaotic final years and those drunken incidents in the early part of his presidency achieving so much .

A: That's true, and people who took part in the attempted coup in August 1991, when hardliners, communist and military men tried to stop the reforms in their tracks and return the old Soviet Union - remember how he grasped the moment and he evaded arrest.

He made his base the Russian parliament, known as the White House in those days, and attracted thousands of people from all over Moscow who came to protect democracy, as they saw it.

And the moment when, in an attempt to try and galvanise them and reach them, he jumped up on top of a tank to announce that he was declaring this attempted coup unconstitutional and he was the real president of Russia. That was the moment when he was a sort of superstar and people had a lot of hope in him.


And when, after that, he banned the Communist Party and helped lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union, became the new president of Russia, there were a lot of people who believed that the shock therapy that he introduced - the very dramatic economic reforms, painful as they were, were probably what Russia needed if it was going to rid itself of 70 years of a communist legacy.

Now over the 1990s, as life got more difficult, more chaotic, there was a war in Chechnya, there was a crash where a lot of people lost their savings - there was a lot of inflation - his popularity dwindled to really just a couple of percentage points.

And I must say now, here I am in Russia, as it happens in a provincial Russian town - I've been talking to people about what they think about life now and life in the last 10 years - I'm afraid that at the moment there are very few people who have a good word to say about him.

People here remember the years when he was president in the 1990s as years of near-anarchy and instability and feel that they've regained more stability. So I think it's going to take another few years - perhaps a decade or more - before people remember that this was the president who first brought in market reforms.

He got rid of a communist system which clearly was not working. And there may have been a lot of problems with the 1990s, but if he hadn't been this risk-taker, a bold figure who was prepared to bring in rather stark changes quickly, perhaps they wouldn't be living with the growing prosperity that certainly some in Russia are enjoying today.


He was also a huge personality and he made it his business to go out and meet the people
Bridget Kendall

Q: An incredible legacy in many ways, Bridget. Many of the shots we're seeing and playing here on News 24 of Boris Yeltsin's life show a man with a smile on his face, a man not afraid to joke and show a sense of humour.

A: That's certainly true. He was a real personality. From the moment he was brought to Moscow from the provinces by Mikhail Gorbachev, in 1986 at the very beginning of those perestroika reforms, I remember a Russian friend of mine at the time saying he was a sort of bouncer. He's a tough guy, he's not afraid to take tough decisions and get rid of people.

But he was also a huge personality and he made it his business to go out and meet the people. He would break away from his security men and jump on a tram and talk to ordinary people.

Now at that time the communist leadership kept itself very aloof from ordinary Soviet people and ordinary Russians leading their rather difficult lives often had very little contact with their leaders. People loved him for that.

And although later people said it was a cynical modern politician's ploy just to make himself seem more accessible to the people and to win their support so that he could get elected, at the time people thought it was a wonderful novelty. They really enjoyed the fact that he had a twinkle in his eye, that he wasn't afraid to speak his mind, say what he thought and enjoy a drop of vodka.


But by the time he became president, and Russia was going through much more difficult changes, he had a different role in the country, no longer just a politician who people could meet and complain about their difficulties to. He was the man they wanted to solve their problems - then they weren't so keen on having a president who was also such a large personality - to the extent that there were occasions when he stumbled off planes drunk.

At one occasion at a big ceremony in Berlin, he tried to conduct an orchestra - and at that point, if you asked Russians what they thought of their president, they'd say 'He's shaming us, he's making Russia look incompetent and weak before the world' - and they didn't like that at all.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6585075.stm

Published: 2007/04/23 17:59:29 GMT

© BBC MMVII

 

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Russia bids farewell to Yeltsin
It was the first church funeral for a Kremlin leader since 1894
Mourners pay respect
Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin has been buried in Moscow after a state funeral on a national day of mourning.
A religious ceremony was attended by former world leaders Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev and John Major.

Mr Yeltsin's coffin was then taken from the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour along the streets of the capital to Novodevichy cemetery for burial.

Mr Yeltsin was Russia's first elected president, leading it to independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

During his time in office, he presided over huge changes and his legacy remains controversial for some.

He died from heart failure on Monday, aged 76.

Wednesday has been declared a day of national mourning.

Grandiose ceremony

Mr Yeltsin's coffin was lowered into a plot at the Novodevichy cemetery as three gun volleys were fired and a military band played the Russian national anthem.

Earlier, the religious ceremony was held in the city's main cathedral, an imposing building of marble and gold domes which was rebuilt under Mr Yeltsin after being demolished during Soviet rule.


STATE FUNERAL
0800 to 1230 Coffin open to public at Christ the Saviour cathedral
1330 Religious service at cathedral
About 1430 Cortege carries coffin to Novodevichy cemetery
After 1500 Burial ceremony
All Moscow time (GMT+4)


Two dozen white-robed priests led the service showing the full splendour of the Russian Orthodox church, as Mr Yeltsin's widow Naina and his two daughters sat beside the open coffin.

Among those present were President Vladimir Putin and former president Mikhail Gorbachev.

Two former US presidents - Bill Clinton and George Bush Snr - were also attending the ceremony, along with former UK Prime Minister Sir John Major and the Duke of York.


A priest read a personal statement from the head of the church, Patriarch Alexy II, in which he recalled how Mr Yeltsin's fate was linked to that of his country.

"The destiny of Boris Nikolayevich reflected the whole dramatic history of the 20th Century."

He said Mr Yeltsin had answered Russia's call for freedom.


"At this time, the desire of our people to live in freedom was growing ever stronger. Boris Nikolayevich felt this desire and helped to bring it about. Being a strong character he took on responsibility for the country at a difficult and dangerous time of radical change."

Ahead of the funeral, Mr Yeltsin's body was laid out in the cathedral. Four members of the Kremlin Guard kept watch over the coffin.

Mr Yeltsin was then taken to the cemetery through the streets of Moscow, which were strewn with carnations and lined with mourners.

Legacy debated

He was buried alongside actors and writers, instead of being laid to rest in Red Square like other former Soviet leaders.


The symbolism surrounding Mr Yeltsin's death has been deliberately unlike that of past Soviet leaders, says the BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow.

The original church where his body has been lying in state was blown up by the Soviets and the site used for a swimming pool.


YELTSIN KEY DATES
July 1990 : Resigns from Communist Party
June 1991 : Elected president of Russian republic (in USSR)
August 1991 : Rallies citizens against anti-Gorbachev coup, bans Russian Communist party
December 1991 : Takes over from Mikhail Gorbachev as head of state
1992 : Lifts price controls, launches privatisation
October 1993 : Russia on brink of civil war, Yeltsin orders tanks to fire at parliament
December 1994 : Sends tanks into Chechnya
June 1996 : Re-elected as Russian president, suffers heart attack during campaign
1998 : Financial crisis, rouble loses 75% of its value
December 1999 : Resigns, appoints Vladimir Putin successor


Mr Yeltsin's funeral is the first for a head of state sanctioned by the Church since Tsar Alexander III's in 1894.

"By his strength, he helped the restoration of the proper role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the life of the country and its people," said Church spokesman Metropolitan Kirill.


The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes says the former president's legacy remains controversial in today's Russia.

Many people feel that he oversaw the terrible economic crisis in Russia in the late 1990s and started a very unpopular war in Chechnya, our correspondent adds.

Mr Yeltsin also oversaw the rise of a class of super-rich oligarchs and huge disparity in wealth in Russia.

But others remember Mr Yeltsin fondly, and say the democracy he established has been curtailed by his successor President Putin.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6590243.stm

Published: 2007/04/25 13:32:57 GMT

© BBC MMVII

 

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In pictures: Russians mourn Yeltsin

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6589245.stm

 

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In pictures: Yeltsin's funeral

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6591217.stm