Boris Yeltsin
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"Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin" was a Russian politician and the first President of Russia/President of the Russia/Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.

Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet. On 12 June 1991 he was elected by popular vote to the newly created post of President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR), at that time one of the 15 constituent republics of the Soviet Union. Upon the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev and the final dissolution of the Soviet Union on 25 December 1991, Yeltsin remained in office as the President of the Russian Federation, the USSR's successor state. Yeltsin was reelected in the Russian presidential election, 1996/1996 election, where critics widely claimed pervasive corruption; in the second round he defeated Gennady Zyuganov from the revived Communist Party of the Russian Federation/Communist Party by a margin of 13%. However, Yeltsin never recovered his early popularity after a series of economic and political crises in Russia in the 1990s.

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We will solve this problem.

215

A man must live like a great brilliant flame and burn as brightly as he can. In the end he burns out. But this is far better than [being] a mean little flame.

183

Today is the last day of an era past.

177

Let's not talk about Communism. Communism was just an idea, just pie in the sky.

174

We can be proud that this is being done peacefully, without revolutions and coups.

159

There are numerous bugbears in the profession of a politician. First, ordinary life suffers. Second, there are many temptations to ruin you and those around you. And I suppose third, and this is rarely discussed, people at the top generally have no friends.

143

Will not allow Kosovo to be touched.

120

I understand that it's hard for everyone, but one cannot give in to emotions... we'll have to draw lessons from the current crisis and now we'll have to work on overcoming it.

119

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.

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