NationStates Jolt Archive

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/23/russia.yeltsin/index.html

A salute to Russia's first democratically-elected leader ever. *raises glass*

We know, this is like the third thread.

We know, this is like the third thread.

It is the third thread.

It is the third thread.

I didn't want to be definite, I was gone for several hours.

This inspires a parody of a Blue Öyster Cult song (Golden age of leather).

"Raise your fifth of vodka on high
and seal your fate forever.
Our best years have passed us by
The golden age of capitalism..."

Someone want to finish this for me?

Eight-twenty-eight PM and aaaaaaallllllllls crap! Oh, and Yeltsin kicked it.

Wait a minute.... Yeltsin's Dead? What are we going to do with the surplus vodka?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1904853.htm

Last Update: Tuesday, April 24, 2007. 7:21am (AEST)
Angry Russians lash out at Yeltsin

Even traditional respect for the dead could not temper Russians' deep-seated anger towards Boris Yeltsin as they reacted to news their former president had died of heart failure.

On the streets of Moscow, residents railed against the many perceived failures of Russia's first post-Soviet president, from the break-up of the USSR and the war in Chechnya to the sell-off of state assets to a handful of oligarchs.

Walking arm-in-arm with his wife, a retired doctor reflected the bitterness that many older Russians still feel at Mr Yeltsin's role in bringing about the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

"I trusted him and he sold out our country," he said.

"My father spent 50 years in the (Communist) party and thought that what he did was for the good of the people. In the end, everything he did was for a handful of embezzlers."

Looking aghast, the doctor's wife pulled on his arm.

"Why say such things about a dead person? You must not," she chastised, reflecting an especially strong tradition in Russia of not speaking ill of the dead.

But a passerby, overhearing the conversation, also showed no restraint.

"Yeltsin is dead?" he shouted. "He was a traitor, a traitor! He sold Russia to the lowest bidder."


Chechnya failure

For some, Mr Yeltsin's greatest failure was ordering troops into Chechnya in 1994 to suppress a separatist movement in the southern Russian region.

Tens of thousands of civilians and thousands of Russian soldiers died during the 1994-1996 Chechen war, which resulted in an embarrassing defeat for the Russian military.

Russian troops recaptured Chechnya in 1999 but violence continues to plague the region.

"I had no respect for him because I served in the army in the conflict zone and I saw everything," Gennady Alembayev said, a 44-year-old veteran.

"We could have easily put a stop to the war in Chechnya and made reforms, but the top ranks of the army and the politicians were making money with this war," he claimed.


Assets sell-off

Others were especially critical of Mr Yeltsin's part in the privatisation of state assets after the Soviet collapse - a process that left a handful very rich while millions slid deeper into dire poverty.

"I have fairly negative feelings towards him because despite all the negative aspects of the USSR, what he did, particularly the privatisations, he did illegally, even criminally," said 20-year-old Dmitry Ulianov, a philosophy student at the prestigious Moscow State University.

Stuck in one of Moscow's infamous traffic jams, Timur, a 24-year-old analyst with an investment fund, said he had mixed feelings about Mr Yeltsin.

While the former president was closely linked with Russia's democratic transformation in the early 1990s, his subsequent handling of state assets was wrong, Timur said.

"What he did in terms of privatisations - I'm not saying it didn't have to be done, but the way it was done was unacceptable."


Celebration

Some even rejoiced in Mr Yeltsin's death, including about a dozen young members of the Eurasian Union, a marginal nationalist group, who held an impromptu street celebration outside Moscow's famed Bolshoi Theatre.

"I think all of Russia is celebrating in silence," one of them said, 29-year-old Pavel Zarifulin.

"[Yeltsin] destroyed the country - only [Mikhail] Gorbachev did worse."

Not everyone was so unforgiving, but even those who praised Yeltsin did so with caveats.

"Boris Yeltsin showed us that we could live differently, freely, and that we must depend on ourselves, but he was isolated by those around him," Piotr Loznitsa said, a craftsman.

"He never understood his main mistakes: the war in Chechnya, the poverty of the people and Russia's geopolitical losses," as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mr Loznitsa said.

- AFP



Stats:
The country's land mass decreased by 23.7%
Population decreased by 10000000 people
Birth-rate decreased by 5000000
30000000 children had no access to school education
5000000 children lived on the streets
14000000 people were flung below the poverty line
Child death rate increased 2.4 times
Child deaths from drugs increased 48 times
Child syphilis cases increased 77 times
The amount of russians ill with tuberculosis increased 2.4 times, with narcomania - 10 times, with syphilis - 25 times, with AIDS - 60 times
Industrial output decreased by 3 times
The country's budget decreased 13 times
The amount of poor people increased 20 times
Organised crime groups increased 20 times, with them controlling half of the country's economy
The damage to the country's economy by Yeltsin is about 8 times greater than by Hitler.

Yeltsin sure as hell won't be missed. May he burn in hell for the rest of eternity.

Putin on the other hand is a legend. His popularity is growing every single day. Not a single leader in Russia's history enjoyed as much support and was perceived as positively as Putin is now.
This is because of his hardline stance on the oligarchs and organised crime and secondly, because of his 'appreciation' of the Soviet life (life was better back then).

I raise my glass to the third thread. Also I tried to say "third thread" several times in a row and it was difficult. Also I am medicated for my cold. Whee!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1904853.htm



Yeltsin sure as hell won't be missed. May he burn in hell for the rest of eternity.

Putin on the other hand is a legend. His popularity is growing every single day. Not a single leader in Russia's history enjoyed as much support and was perceived as positively as Putin is now.
This is because of his hardline stance on the oligarchs and organised crime and secondly, because of his 'appreciation' of the Soviet life (life was better back then).

Yeah Yeltsen was a faluire like most west backed capitalist leaders. (Pinochet-Chile, Memem-Argentina) The only people who thought he was a good leader were the people not living in Russia.

did they find any polonium in his body? :p

[Putin on the other hand is a legend. His popularity is growing every single day. Not a single leader in Russia's history enjoyed as much support and was perceived as positively as Putin is now.
This is because of his hardline stance on the oligarchs and organised crime and secondly, because of his 'appreciation' of the Soviet life (life was better back then).

And turning the country back into a dictatorship by the day. The people are not as happy with Putin as you make it out to believe.

did they find any polonium in his body? :p

Ha haaa! *zing*

Yeltsin was an incompetent drunk who's only skill was amazing luck in the history books (like a few others)

so I celebrated by getting drunk and singing the internationale (http://www.uv.es/~pla/red.net/intaoter.html) (despite my boycott on fun on st Georges)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1904853.htm



Yeltsin sure as hell won't be missed. May he burn in hell for the rest of eternity.

Putin on the other hand is a legend. His popularity is growing every single day. Not a single leader in Russia's history enjoyed as much support and was perceived as positively as Putin is now.
This is because of his hardline stance on the oligarchs and organised crime and secondly, because of his 'appreciation' of the Soviet life (life was better back then).
Just to add those stats about the oligarchs: Apparently, 36 people have control on over 1/4 of Russia's economy.
36.
Not even Gates and Buffet have that sort of control.

I dislike Putin though, even though he is admittedly an improvement on Yeltsin. He's barely above the level of tyrant.

......Lets mourn the guy who killed the Soviet Union and threw Russia into over a decade of poverty that they are only now overcoming...Lets not forget him almost starting world war 3 over a damned weather sat! Great man...great man.



Not trying to disrespect the dead, but when it comes to great leaders he is somewhere near the bottom 1%.

......Lets mourn the guy who killed the Soviet Union and threw Russia into over a decade of poverty that they are only now overcoming...Lets not forget him almost starting world war 3 over a damned weather sat! Great man...great man.



Not trying to disrespect the dead, but when it comes to great leaders he is somewhere near the bottom 1%.
scarily enough, I find myself agreeing with you.
I'm frightened.
hold me, someone.

no, not you. her. yeahhhh...

......Lets mourn the guy who killed the Soviet Union and threw Russia into over a decade of poverty that they are only now overcoming...Lets not forget him almost starting world war 3 over a damned weather sat! Great man...great man.



Not trying to disrespect the dead, but when it comes to great leaders he is somewhere near the bottom 1%.Don't forget the 3 million Russians who died prematurely thanks to the economic reforms he introduced.

Hey, at least he wasn't a fucking communist.

scarily enough, I find myself agreeing with you.
I'm frightened.
hold me, someone.

no, not you. her. yeahhhh...Feels rejected.:(

Hey, at least he wasn't a fucking communist.Too bad they seem to like the communist more...

Don't forget the 3 million Russians who died prematurely thanks to the economic reforms he introduced.



I didn't forget them.....Should mentioned them.