Title: Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s First Elected President, Dies at 76 | Democracy Now!
Headings: Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s First Elected President, Dies at 76
Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s First Elected President, Dies at 76
Transcript
Next story from this daily show

Content: AMY GOODMAN: The body of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin is to lie in state in Moscow, ahead of a funeral on Wednesday. Yeltsin died Monday of heart failure at the age of 76. Boris Yeltsin came to power in 1991 as Russia’s first post-Soviet head of state, replacing Mikhail Gorbachev. He led the country’s chaotic transition from communism to a capitalist democracy before resigning in 1999. Tributes to Yeltsin poured in from Western leaders upon news of his death. In Washington, President Bush said he “helped lay the foundations of freedom in Russia.” British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the former president a “remarkable man” who had fearlessly championed democracy and economic reform. But critics blame Yeltsin for plunging his country into years of economic and political turmoil after he dissolved the Soviet Union. He also presided over the disastrous military campaign to crush Chechnya’s drive for independence.