Title: Ex-Russian Leader Boris Yeltsin Dies - CBS News
Headings: Ex-Russian Leader Boris Yeltsin Dies
Ex-Russian Leader Boris Yeltsin Dies
Content: "The debilitating bouts of depression, the grave second thoughts, the insomnia and headaches in the middle of the night, the tears and despair ... the hurt from people close to me who did not support me at the last minute, who didn't hold up, who deceived me — I have had to bear all of this," he wrote in his 1994 memoir, "The Struggle for Russia." Yeltsin pushed through free-market reforms, creating a private sector and allowing foreign investment. In foreign policy, he assured independence for Russia's Soviet-era satellites, oversaw troop and arms reductions, and warmly embraced Western leaders. Throughout his nearly decade-long leadership, he remained Russia's strongest bulwark against Communism. "What set him apart was that he very often defeated his opponents, but he never trampled on them," said Grigory Yavlinsky, the head of Russia's marginalized liberal Yabloko party. " He would knock an opponent off his horse, but never destroy him. In his time, there were many shortcomings and even crimes, but ... there was never any physical removal of political opponents in Russia, and that was his personal contribution." But there was another Yeltsin. He was hesitant to act against rampant crime and epic corruption, beginning in his own administration, as both sapped public faith and crippled the young democracy. His government's wrenching economic reforms impoverished millions, poor people whose wages and pensions Yeltsin's government often went months without paying.