Sergei Boguslavsky, Head, TSRT (Center for Reputation Technologies) private PR firm:
"Yeltsin was one of those few Russian leaders who became figures of world history. He was very Russian in everything, in his controversies in particular. He was also a true, born leader, capable of going against the tide of public opinion. He did so when he quarreled with Gorbachev in the Soviet Politburo. He did go against the tide, when he presided over the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He did so when he hired Yegor Gaidar and his team to launch his reform.
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"His finale is telling: it looks like he has accomplished his objectives. He has provided security for his physical family and for the Family, as the whole agglomeration of vast financial and political holdings and interests that has grown around him and his close relatives has become known. He passed into a political oblivion in exchange for letting the Family keep and enlarge their vast assets. In this sense, he has been long dead. But he was a great politician, leader and he made history."
Vladimir Melnikov, janitor, handyman and an occasional driver:
"There was nothing heroic left about Yeltsin. In fact, there has never been. There was nothing heroic about his climbing that tank he knew damn well he was safe; it was a gesture to seal his victory over those inept putschists. He just found an appropriate moment that worked for him to do that.
"There wasn't anything heroic about him fighting Gorbachev either in fact, he continued what Gorbachev started. Gorbachev ruined the Soviet Union. Yeltsin ruined Russia. He led to having this country robbed and pilfered. He hasn't done anything good to us. All he has done has been negative. The new rich have benefited under him. But he has done nothing for the ordinary people."