RUSSIA AFTER YELTSIN.

AuthorSUDO, PHIL
PositionBoris Yeltsin, former President of Russia

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT YELTSIN STEPS DOWN, SURPRISING THE WORLD. WHAT'S THE NEXT SHOCK FROM THE FORMER COMMUNIST SUPERPOWER?

On the final day of a dramatic decade, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin shocked his nation and the world by resigning his post on New

Year's Eve, handing the reins of power to his hand-picked successor, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin.

Yeltsin, 68, ended his career on the same note of surprise and drama that made him one of the dominant political figures of the '90s. "I am resigning ahead of time," he told a stunned nation. "Russia must enter the next millennium with new politicians, with new personalities, and with new, smart, strong, and energetic people."

The move was calculated to thwart Yeltsin's opponents and put Putin in a commanding position to win the presidency outright when Russians take to the ballot box in March. But it also raises questions about the future of Russia's fledgling democracy and its relations with the United States. Since coming to power in 1991, Yeltsin had worked to dismantle Russia's Communist dictatorship and replace it with democracy and free markets. Whether Russia continues the course of reform without Yeltsin, or reverts to its authoritarian past, remains an open question, with repercussions for the U.S. and all of Europe.

YELTSIN MADE DEMOCRACY

If the effect of Yeltsin's resignation on Russia's future remains unclear, his impact on its history is unquestioned. Russia's first democratically elected leader, he presided over the breakup of the Soviet Union, the world's leading Communist state, as it split into Russia and 14 other republics in 1991. That year, he stood atop an armored personnel carrier in Moscow and defiantly led a rally against Communist military leaders who had taken over the government, forcing them to step down--a watershed moment in the history of the country.

The Soviet Union's collapse ended the Cold War, a decades-long battle between the Soviet Union and United States for global supremacy, and the dangerous, escalating arms race the two superpowers had engaged in.

For the U.S. and Europe, the end of the Cold War has meant a greatly reduced threat of nuclear war and freedom from tyranny. But in Russia, the transition to democracy has wrought political chaos.

Without government support, the economy crashed, throwing millions of Russians into poverty. As the state loosened its grip on society, organized crime and corruption rushed in to fill the vacuum. Yeltsin's...

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