DATE=1/5/2000
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=BORIS YELTSIN RESIGNS (CQ)
NUMBER=6-11617
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=
INTRO: The biggest news story of New Year's Day,
aside from the changing of years, centuries and, some
say, the millennium, was the resignation of Russian
President Boris Yeltsin.
In what some U-S papers are describing as a political
master stroke, the ailing, 68-year-old Russian leader
stepped down in such a way as to give his hand-picked
successor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a big
advantage in the next election.
Dozens of U-S papers are commenting on this latest,
unexpected turn in the Russia's turbulent politics.
We get a sampling now from ____________ in today's U-S
Opinion Roundup.
TEXT: The Russian president went on national
television New Year's Eve to tell a stunned nation of
his decision. He has been in failing health for
years, and after a succession of Prime Ministers
during the past 24 months, decided on Mr. Putin as his
chosen successor.
Many Russians greeted the news with approval,
suggesting that it was time for the ailing leader to
step aside. Surprisingly, even many of Mr. Yeltsin's
harshest critics seemed to mellow their assessment of
his achievements with the news. However, many
observers pointed out that Mr. Yeltsin was leaving
under a cloud, with as yet unproven assertions that
he, or members of his inner circle, had accepted
bribes from international businessmen. In one of his
first moves as acting president, Mr. Putin granted
President Yeltsin a full pardon, as well as other
benefits.
We begin this assessment of Mr. Yeltsin's place in
history with the Chicago Tribune.
VOICE: History is made mostly by leaders with the
instincts to recognize the decisive moment and
the boldness to seize the initiative that
carries the day. Boris Yeltsin was such a
leader, right down to his surprise resignation
... on Friday. ... The Russian people may have
mixed feelings about [Mr.] Yeltsin now, but
history may judge him more kindly. He turned
one of the 20th century's evil empires into one
of the world's largest democracies. In the new
century, [Mr.] Yeltsin's great legacy may be
this peaceful, democratic transition and the
free elections to come.
TEXT: Some of that assessment is echoed by The Tulsa
[Oklahoma] World, which comments:
VOICE: [Mr.] Yeltsin leaves office almost a shell of
his former self. But he must be remembered as a
strong leader who rallied his countrymen at a
time when a half-century of communist rule and
one-thousand years of tyranny was all the
Russian people had known. /// OPT /// History
will be kinder to [President] Yeltsin than his
last years in office would indicate. /// END OPT
///
TEXT: In Jacksonville, The Florida Times-Union
remembers what many are calling Mr. Yeltsin's finest
hour, during the attempted coup.
VOICE: History will speak highly of him. He was,
first and foremost, a hero - - the man who
stood bravely on top of a tank and whipped up
sentiment against a hard-line coup, paving the
way for the collapse of soviet communism. He
was the architect of Russian democracy and free
markets. ... He also was the first elected
Russian president to voluntarily transfer power
to a successor. [Mr.] Yeltsin has critics --
all great men do -- but he leaves an impressive
legacy.
TEXT: After praising Mr. Yeltsin along the lines of
the other editorials cited, The Detroit News takes a
look at the many negatives he leaves behind.
VOICE: Mr. Yeltsin dismantled government-run Soviet
factories, a relic of communist planning, but
put them in the hands of private monopolists,
most of whom were his own cronies. This
concentrated the fruits of reform in the hands
of a few, fueling the economic meltdown of 1998
and earning a bad reputation for capitalism. To
make matters worse, he devalued the ruble,
producing runaway inflation; kept taxes high in
a vain effort to balance the budget; and made
little headway in establishing the rule of law
and property rights. .... Average Russians may
be forgiven for thinking that they aren't much
better off than they were under communism - - a
fact for which Mr. Yeltsin apologized in his
farewell speech.
TEXT: Across Lake Erie, The [Cleveland, Ohio] Plain
Dealer adds this summing up.
VOICE: ... it may be argued it was past time for
[Mr.] Yeltsin to go. Russia's first
democratically-elected president who led the
fight to cast off the tyrannical trappings of
the old Soviet state, he had become a caricature
of himself. Nonetheless, it was vintage Yeltsin
to pick the last day of the century for his
dramatic exit. It is to his credit he
recognized that Russia needed a change at the
top. But whether he has set in motion a chain
of events that will be good for Russia or the
world is one of the first riddles to be solved
in the 21st century.
/// OPT ///
TEXT: From the Southwest comes this critique in The
Daily Oklahoman, from Oklahoma City.
VOICE: Behind the caricature and the real-world
Pratfalls (blunders), Boris Yeltsin became a
pretty fair politician. For evidence look no
further than his New Year's Eve resignation.
His Prime Minister and handpicked successor,
Vlaldimir Putin, is in a strong position to win
Russia's next presidential election in March
..... Not bad for a bumbling, hard-drinking,
sickly former communist. If Russia continues to
stumble toward democracy ... [Mr.] Yeltsin will
deserve much of the credit.
TEXT: In Texas, The Houston Chronicle looks ahead,
wondering "What would a Putin presidency mean?"
VOICE: "The scary truth is, we have absolutely no
idea," says Michael McFaul, an expert with the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who
spoke about Russian politics recently [at]...
the Houston World Affairs Council.
TEXT: Across the state, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
says:
VOICE: Vladimir Putin may be a mystery to the West,
but he may also be Russia's best hope for the
future.
TEXT: While in the Midwest, the outgoing Russian
leader draws praise from The Detroit Free Press.
VOICE: You can say this for Boris Yeltsin: In his
best moments, he had an unbeatable sense of
political theater. Whether he was clambering
aboard a tank to resist a communist coup ... or
resigning unexpectedly on the cusp of the
millennium - - he knew how to make his point.
What he didn't know was how to make Russia work.
...[However] ... He leaves behind a country in
which the idea of elections has become
commonplace, and the commitment to a free-market
economy is firm, at least in theory: think what
a miracle that is, after a thousand years of
autocracy.
TEXT: The Kansas City [Missouri] Star compares him
favorably to America's irascible 18th president Ulysses
S. Grant, the famed Civil War commanding General of
the Union army.
VOICE: Both were hard-drinking, rough-edged,
underestimated men who surrounded themselves
with corrupt followers. Both seemed to wither
amid the routine of day-to-day administration.
Yet both could rise to meet a crisis.
TEXT: And from Connecticut's capital, The Hartford
Courant says of the former Russian leader:
VOICE: President Boris Yeltsin ... will forever be
remembered as a man of courage who engineered
the relatively peaceful breakup of a
dysfunctional totalitarian empire.
/// END OPT ///
TEXT: Lastly, from The Boston Sunday Globe, this
perspective on the former Russian leader and his
successor.
VOICE: Exit Yeltsin, not with the bang of standing
atop a tank turning back an attempted putsch ...
but with a whimper, looking old and sick, and
asking his country's forgiveness. Part buffoon,
part hero, and a political operator of great
skill, Boris Yeltsin ... will be remembered as
the man who brought forth a reconstituted Russia
from the ruins of the Soviet Union. ... [Mr.]
Yeltsin's last years were dogged by illness and
by hints of scandal, and his chosen successor,
who will face an election in 90 days, is
Vladimir Putin, whose fortunes will rise or fall
in the Stalingrad-like ruins of Grozny, where a
war rages with no end in sight.
TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of U-S
editorial comment on the resignation of Russian
President Boris Yeltsin.
NEB/ANG/gm
05-Jan-2000 12:21 PM EDT (05-Jan-2000 1721 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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