Boris Yeltsin has died

[Milky Tears]

Just announced on BBC News:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6584481.stm

Russian ex-president Yeltsin dies

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin has died, the Kremlin says.
Mr Yeltsin was 76. The cause of death has not yet been announced. He had a history of heart trouble.

In 1991 he famously outmanoeuvred former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and then triumphed against parliament hardliners in 1993.

Mr Yeltsin became Russia's first democratically elected president after Mr Gorbachev resigned as Soviet leader in December 1991.

He won international acclaim as a defender of democracy when in August 1991 he mounted a tank in Moscow, rallying the people against an attempt to overthrow Mr Gorbachev's era of glasnost and perestroika.

[Rob McCow]

That's very sad. I remember our Politics teacher telling us how brilliant Yeltsin was for staying up over a few nights with a bottle of Vodka and writing a new Russian Constitution. And creating a more democratic Russia.

Despite the unhealthy lifestyle, I believe he was a great man.

[Captain Tancredi]

Bill Clinton speaks very highly of him in his autobiography, and the world is probably the better for the stand he made against the nationalist coup against Gorbachev. The world will probably remember the drunken buffoon first, but I do believe he wanted to see a democratic Russia taking its place in the world community- the shame is that Putin is having to roll back some of his reforms because too much was tried too quickly and it nearly ended in anarchy.

[Dave Tudor]

Yeltsin was that rarity, a modern world leader who could generally be said to have made a difference. Yeds, Russia may have suffered economic and social decline because of the reforms he introduced, but it did seem to become a much more free country.

Rest in peace, Boris.

[WhiteCrow]

Looks like he's going to lie in state - luckily he probably won't need any embalming fluid. For some reason though I'm reminded of when Father Jack "died" in Father Ted ...

[Anthony Williams]

I always liked Boris... may he rest in peace

Ant x

[Jon Masters]

I'm incredibly ignorant about world affairs, but I was never realy comfortable with the way Yeltsin came to power. I can't deny the bravery of the man when he stood up to the troops and the attempted coup, but I always felt that Gorbachev was trying to dismantle communism gradually from within (hence the coup), and by facing him down in the Kremlin afterwards Yeltsin gave him no opportunity to do anything but step down. Certainly I think the nastier aspects of the break up of the USSR, the Chechnia situation, and the subsequent corruption in Russia might have much reduced with a less radical shift in power than the one Yeltsin precipitated.

So bye Boris - you had good days and bad, but you were never boring.

[Carol Baynes]

He has voiced a few regrets, and I think that shows him of a man of true substance actually. He did make radical chages, and maybe some were too many and too fast but ultimately th echanges have probbaly been for the best, so he could at least say he made a difference. His passing is a real sad loss.