Russia: Death of former president Yeltsin (pub. April 23, 2007)
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On April 23 the Kremlin announced that the former President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, had died aged 76, of heart failure. He was buried with full state honours on April 25 in the cemetery of a monastery, not alongside other Soviet leaders in Red Square. The funeral was attended by President Vladimir Putin, Yeltsin's successor, and US President Bill Clinton.
Immediate context
Yeltsin resigned from office in 1999 having chosen Vladimir Putin to succeed him. A radical and often contradictory figure, he had been an outspoken critic of the last Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, but nevertheless supported him against the conservatives who tried to depose him in 1991. Yeltsin's later career was marred by his poor health. In 1996, shortly after being re-elected as President, he underwent major heart surgery.
