Boris Yeltsin - a democrat of transition

"To do Boris Yeltsin true justice you have to say something about his successor Vladimir Putin," writes Jan Rybar on the death of the former Russian president. "When Putin came to power he became a hero for Russia and the West. He brought stability to the country, the economy stopped collapsing and the brutal plundering of the country by oligarchs with close ties to Yeltsin came to an end. Putin sent new tanks to Chechnya while the Russians backed and applauded his hard line there. But something fundamental disappeared: the freedom of the Yeltsin era. Despite all his mistakes, Yeltsin was convinced that without freedom of speech and opposition parties Russia wouldn't have a chance... Today's Russia is different."

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