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[Woland]

Here's a link to a rather full obit. They've been preparing for this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obit_yeltsin

I was in Russia in 1990 as his star rose. My Russian friends would talk about their preference for him over Gorbachev because they felt he was more honest and more likely to promote real changes.

The years after he came to power were such a mixed, messy period - the opening of Russia, but also the looting of the state, the assault on Parliament, the war in Chechenya, and in the long run, the return of authoritarianism. He was a great revolutionary, but a terrible leader/administrator, in my view.

But for one glorious moment, he stood on a tank in Moscow and declared the end to the coup, and shortly thereafter, the end to Communism as a state ideology. He'll be remembered well just for that.

EDIT: Here's the NYTimes story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/world/europe/23cnd-yeltsin.html?pagewanted=2&hp

[Ya-ta Boy]