Yeltsin's legacy divides leaders

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Yeltsin's legacy divides leaders
Peter Wilson, Europe correspondent
April 25, 2007

BORIS Yeltsin's death led to conflicting salvos of praise and condemnation yesterday as foreign leaders and the Russian public assessed the remarkably mixed legacy of Russia's first elected president.

Western leaders concentrated on Mr Yeltsin's historic achievements of helping to break up the Soviet Union, ending Communist rule and introducing the greatest political freedom seen in Russian history.
But critics in Russia emphasised the corruption and economic chaos that swamped the country during his eight-year rule, while others damned him for paving the way for the erosion of democratic rights under his hand-picked successor, Vladimir Putin.

Mr Yeltsin died of heart failure in Moscow on Monday, aged 76. His funeral service will be held at 6pm (AEST) today in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. He will be buried next to the graves of Raisa Gorbachev, wife of former leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and politician Alexander Lebed at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Although he saved the fledgling Russian democracy from a communist coup in 1991, Mr Yeltsin went on to hand billions of dollars worth of public assets to favoured business and political associates in return for their support. He also launched a brutal war in Chechnya, and on December 31, 1999, avoided proper elections by stepping down and appointing Mr Putin as his successor.

Mr Putin has since protected Mr Yeltsin and his entourage from corruption charges and yesterday declared a day of national mourning for his funeral today.

\"We will do everything we can to ensure 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,\" Mr Putin said in a nationally televised address.

Under Mr Yeltsin, \"a new, democratic Russia was born, a free state open to the world - a state in which power truly belongs to the people\", Mr Putin said.

In December 1994, Mr Yeltsin launched the first of two Russian wars against Muslim separatists in Chechnya - conflicts that would turn Grozny, the Chechen capital, into a wasteland and result in Mr Yeltsin being responsible for the violent deaths of more Russian citizens than any Kremlin leader since Joseph Stalin.

Former British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind said he was amazed Mr Yeltsin had lasted as long as he did, given that he had survived at least three heart attacks, major heart surgery and a life of heavy drinking.

Western intelligence agencies had come to a consensus more than a decade ago that Mr Yeltsin was going to be dead within a year, Mr Rifkind said.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader who sponsored Mr Yeltsin but was later out-manoeuvred by him, said Mr Yeltsin left behind \"major deeds for the good of the country, as well as serious mistakes\".

US President George W. Bush emphasised Mr Yeltsin's determination to build strong and peaceful ties with the West. \"resident Yeltsin was an historic figure who served his country during a time of momentous change,\" he said.

Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl said all Germans would \"be eternally grateful for the way in which he presided over the withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany\".

Similar gratitude was expressed by eastern European leaders, who said Mr Yeltsin had helped them to leave the Soviet orbit.

A statement released in the name of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher said Mr Yeltsin \"deserves to be honoured as a patriot and a liberator\". Her statement said: \"Without Boris Yeltsin, Russia would have remained in the grip of communism and the Baltic states would not be free.\"

Former US president Bill Clinton, whose eight years in office largely overlapped with Mr Yeltsin's rule, called him \"a Russian patriot who believed that democracy was the only way to restore Russia's position of greatness in the 21st century\".

\"Throughout his presidency, he worked tirelessly toward that goal, to the detriment of his health, but to the great benefit of his nation,\" Mr Clinton said. \"Fate gave him a tough time in which to govern, but history will be kind to him because he was courageous and steadfast on the big issues - peace, freedom and progress.\"

But Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov accused Mr Yeltsin of bringing \"a great woe for Russia and for millions of people\", by impoverishing the country and allowing his associates to plunder its national assets.

\"I have no goods words for him, and do not want to say anything bad about the dead,\" Mr Zyuganov said.

Mr Yeltsin's former adviser, Alexander Nekrasov, said Mr Yeltsin would always be remembered as the man who brought down communism, even though things went seriously wrong in the second half of his rule.

\"eople were using his position to gain enormous wealth,\" Mr Nekrasov said. \"Yeltsin was sometimes weak and ill. Let's face it, he was drinking a lot.\"