DATE=12/2/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / YELTSIN LEGACY
NUMBER=5-44895
BYLINE=ANDRE DE NESNERA
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
// Eds: This is the seventh of an eight-part series on
Russia. Issues raised in the series include NATO-
Russian relations, the role of the I-M-F, corruption
and Western policies toward Russia. //
INTRO: Russian voters go to the polls December 19th to
elect a new parliament. And next year, they will cast
ballots for a new president to replace Boris Yeltsin.
In this seventh of eight reports on Russia, former V-
O-A Moscow correspondent Andre de Nesnera looks at Mr.
Yeltsin's legacy as he approaches the end of his
tenure in office.
TEXT: Boris Yeltsin's place in history is secure: he
will best be remembered as the man who helped bring
down the Soviet Union.
Who can forget the image of Mr. Yeltsin in mid-August
1991 - just two months after being elected Russian
president - standing atop a tank, addressing thousands
of unarmed citizens in front of the Parliament
building in Moscow - and urging them to resist a coup
attempt against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Mr.
Yeltsin's swift action and the people's resistance
were key reasons why the attempted takeover by hard-
liners collapsed. It was clear Mr. Yeltsin held the
upper hand - and on December 25th, 1991 Mikhail
Gorbachev resigned. The Soviet Union ceased to exist.
Hopes were raised that with a reform-minded leader at
the helm, Russia would now confidently move on the
path to democracy.
But former U-S National Security Adviser General Brent
Scowcroft questions whether President Yeltsin was
indeed a reformer.
/// SCOWCROFT ACT ///
I am not sure that Yeltsin was a dedicated
democrat. He is a populist. He certainly
understood the people and the mood of the people
better than Gorbachev did. But I think his first
instinct was for power. And he will be known for
the collapse, for the end of the Soviet Union.
The bitter rivalry between Gorbachev and Yeltsin
led Yeltsin, really, to pull the Soviet Union
down as a way to get rid of Gorbachev.
/// END ACT ///
Many analysts say President Yeltsin's legacy is a
mixed one.
Ariel Cohen - senior Russia expert with the Heritage
Foundation research center - agrees with those who say
President Yeltsin put the dying communist regime out
of its misery. But he says after that, the Russian
leader missed many opportunities.
/// COHEN ACT ///
He missed an opportunity to build a rule of law
society, which is extremely important in any
transitional situation from communism to free
market and democracy. He missed an opportunity
NOT to go to war in Chechnya (1994-96) and as a
result of that missed opportunity almost 100,000
people got killed. He missed an opportunity to
show by personal example what a responsible
leadership is, what clean hands in politics are.
And in that respect he - as many other Russian
leaders in the past, including the period of the
tsars - is leaving a very, very mixed feeling to
the outside observer and almost unanimous
disrespect among the Russian people.
/// END ACT ///
Many analysts say during his presidency, Mr. Yeltsin
has vacillated between authoritarian and democratic
tendencies. He has opened up Russian society, allowed
a freer discourse and set up political processes that
guarantee a peaceful transition of power. But at the
same time, he has shown authoritarian tendencies by
bombing the Russian parliament in 1993 and using
military force in Chechnya.
Candoleeza Rice - senior foreign policy adviser to
presidential hopeful George Bush - says Mr. Yeltsin's
last years in office have not been very productive.
/// RICE ACT ///
If I have a real criticism of Boris Yeltsin, it
is that he failed somehow to see that he is
mortal. He failed to see the importance of
transferring his personal authority into
institutions that could survive him. And he has
in the last couple of years acted more like an
emperor than a president: coming in from his
sick bed from time to time to fire prime
ministers - and in the most arbitrary way. I
think that is sad, because I think his earlier
legacy is a very good one for Russia.
/// END ACT ///
Whether one agrees or disagrees with President
Yeltsin's handling of Russian affairs for the past
eight years, his era will come to an end next June,
when Russians elect a new President. And it will be
for history to judge Mr. Yeltsin's legacy. (Signed)
NEB/ADEN/KL
02-Dec-1999 14:20 PM EDT (02-Dec-1999 1920 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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