When I spoke to Boris Yeltsin by phone on New Year's Eve, shortly after he announced his resignation, he conveyed a mixture of relief that a tough choice was behind him and confidence that it was the right choice for his country.
The manner of his leaving the presidency was vintage Yeltsin--bold, blunt, even defiant, but rooted in his core belief in the right and the ability of the Russian people to choose their own leaders and their own course for the future.
I met him for the first time in June 1992, when I was still a candidate for the...
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