Boris Yeltsin responds to a reporter's characterisation of him as a 'disaster' at the end of a successful summit with the then President of the United States; and Bill Clinton is beside himself with laughter.
So was he a disaster or not? He was a catalyst for democracy in the Soviet Union but also someone who partly through alcoholism & ill health proved unable to institutionalise reform sufficiently. Putin took over and has since been dragging the nation back towards dictatorship.
Boris Yeltsin died today.
Only history can tell whether his reforms will stand the test of time. I am not hopeful.
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