Yeltsin in the Russian Media
Boris Yeltsin was laid to rest in the famed Novodevichy Cemetery. The funeral was attended by a number of dignitaries that included Putin, Bill Clinton, and George H. W. Bush. Yeltsin was buried about 200 yards from another famed reformer, Nikita Khrushchev. The evaluation of Yeltsin’s legacy in the West has been a mix of praise and regret. Praise for the political openness that flourished throughout the 1990s. Regret that Russian democracy didn’t and in many ways couldn’t hold against the onslaught of social and economic crisis, corruption, theft, and crime. In all I think Yeltsin was a tragic figure. He was at once the shaper of history as he was also trapped in its bondage. In this sense, to many especially in the West, Yeltsin’s death comes with another more symbolic loss. That loss is yet another chink in the ..read more
