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)
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Source: Voice of America
.