![]() ![]() Yeltsin's greatest moments came in bursts. Yeltsin amassed as much power as possible in his office - then gave it all up in a dramatic New Year's address at the end of 1999. Vladimir Putin, has proven far more popular even as he has tightened Kremlin control over both Russia's industry and its press. ![]() Yeltsin steadfastly defended freedom of the press, but was a master at manipulating the media. Yeltsin was a contradictory figure, rocketing to popularity in the Communist era on pledges to fight corruption - but proving unable, or unwilling, to prevent the looting of state industry as it moved into private hands during his nine years as Russia's first freely elected president. He referred to Yeltsin as one "on whose shoulders are both great deeds for the country and serious errors," according to the news agency Interfax. Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, summed up the complexity of Yeltsin's legacy in a condolence statement minutes after the death was announced. Kremlin spokesman Alexander Smirnov confirmed Yeltsin's death, and Russian news agencies cited Sergei Mironov, head of the presidential administration's medical center, as saying the former president died Monday of heart failure at the Central Clinical Hospital.Īlthough Yeltsin pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, many of its citizens will remember him mostly for presiding over the country's steep decline. ![]() MOSCOW - Former President Boris Yeltsin, who engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union and pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, died Monday. ![]()
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