Free Republic

Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin got so drunk during a visit to Washington that he was found standing outside the White House in his underpants trying to hail a cab to go and buy a pizza. The following night he was mistaken for a drunken intruder when he was discovered stumbling around the basement of his guest house by secret service agents. The drunken behaviour of Yeltsin, who was known for his fondness for vodka and died two years ago aged 76, were revealed by former US president Bill Clinton. Clinton, who is no stranger to indiscretions of his own,...

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,...