Posted on 02/01/2006 2:40:01 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
RETIRED Russian president Boris Yeltsin will celebrate his 75th birthday today at a Kremlin function expected to include former US and German leaders Bill Clinton and Helmut Kohl.
Yeltsin, who received messages of congratulations from Russian Patriarch Alexy II and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, spoke again before the occasion of his hopes as he steered Russia out of the Soviet era.
"I wanted people to become free and happy," the ex-president said.
Born in Siberia in 1931, Mr Yeltsin dissolved the Soviet Union in 1991 and founded modern Russia. But most Russians still view his presidency in a negative light, according to opinion polls.
"In the time that Boris Yeltsin led Russia, the people of our country, the citizens of Russia, won the most important thing, the thing all the changes were implemented for, and that was freedom," President Vladimir Putin said yesterday about his predecessor.
Despite a history of heart, respiratory and back problems, Mr Yeltsin looked healthy and robust in his retirement, wrote journalists who interviewed him.
His long-term rival, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, was not invited to the reception in the Kremlin.
Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, meanwhile, called Yeltsin's presidency a "disaster for our country".
That guy's been closer to death longer than Keith Richard! How does he do it?
I'm surprised he still has a liver.
I am right there with you- I love vodka! LOL
Yeltsin is still a hero for standing up to the attempted 91 coup.
Spoken like a true commie (/sarcasm)
Has there been any Russian leader, save Peter the Great, that Russians don't view in a negative light?
And where were you, Mr. Luzhkov, when Boris Yeltsin climbed the tank and rallied his people?
Mr. Yeltsin will become one of the great figures of Russian history, but it will take a long time for the historians to realize it.
God Bless you, Mr. Yeltsin. Happy Birthday.
Where was Putin?
Remember making an Icelandic President wait for him at the ladder of his aircraft for hour because he was too pissed to climb out. When he finally apeared that was a show!
Or remember when in 1994 in Berlin legless Yeltsyn grasped a baton from conductor of a German military band and started "conducting" himself singing "Kalinka"?
Catherine II (18th century), Alexander III (XIX century), Ivan III (15-16th), Dmitry Donskoy (14th).
Ted Kennedy and Boris Yelsten look alike.
The only way it will be realised is if Russia turnes it's back on authoritianism FOR GOOD.
If you want a good read, try Yeltsin's book "Against the Grain".
Not well organized, but it gives a good look at the man.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.