World hails Yeltsin as courageous but flawed figure

FRANCE: World leaders on Monday paid tribute to former Russian president Boris Yeltsin as a flawed but heroic figure who defended a fledgeling democracy after the traumatic collapse of the Soviet Union.

Yeltsin, who died Monday of a heart attack at the age of 76, was lauded as a hugely influential reformer, despite a mixed final legacy and a reputation for hard living that contributed to his long-term ill-health.

“President Yeltsin was an historic figure who served his country during a time of momentous change,” US President George W. Bush said in a statement.

“He played a key role as the Soviet Union dissolved, helped lay the foundations of freedom in Russia, and became the first democratically elected leader in that country’s history,” Bush said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the former president was a “remarkable” man who had fearlessly championed democracy and economic reform.

“And in defending that reform he played a vital role at a crucial time in Russia’s history,” Blair said.

Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, famously dubbed the “Iron Lady” by the Soviet-era leadership in Moscow, said Yeltsin deserved to be honoured “as a patriot and liberator.”

Many recalled the iconic image of Yeltsin clambering onto a tank sent into Moscow in 1991 by communist hardliners attempting a coup in the dying days of the Soviet Union.

“No American, at least, will forget seeing him standing on the tank,” said US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said Yeltsin had shown “great personal courage” in defending freedom.

“As president he had enormous challenges and difficult mandates but he certainly brought East and West closer together and helped replace confrontation by cooperation,” Barroso said.

The same legacy was highlighted by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer who said Yeltsin had been at the forefront of post-Cold War efforts to forge a new relationship between Russia and the alliance. “This historic effort to set aside the fears and stereotypes of the past in favour of cooperation in facing the challenges of the future ... continues to this day,” Scheffer said.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, paid a mixed tribute to the man who ended up helping to push him out of office.

“I offer my deepest condolences to the family of a man on whose shoulders rested many great deeds for the good of the country and serious mistakes — a tragic fate,” Gorbachev was quoted by Interfax as saying.

There was more effusive praise from exiled Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, who made his fortune under Yeltsin and called him Russia’s “greatest reformer.”

“He helped millions and millions of Russians become free, including me. He helped me to understand freedom compared to slavery,” Berezovsky said. “He was definitely unique, a man at the top of Russia’s history.”

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt hailed the former Russian president as “one of the truly great men of our time” who put Russia on a new path during a crucial period of uncertainty.

“When everything was uncertain in the crumbling Soviet Union, it was he who staked out a new direction by abolishing the Soviet Union and granting independence to the three Baltic states,” Bildt said.

Political leaders in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia mourned the man who helped all three Baltic countries regain independence from the Soviet Union.

“Yeltsin was the statesman who laid the ground,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas told AFP.

Paris, Tuesday, AFP.