Opinion of Boris Yeltsin

[H. Ross Peron]

Massive HP. Certainly the Russian leader responsible for the largest number of deaths since Stalin.

[TNF]

Massive HP

[ElectionsGuy]

Massive HP

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Massive HP. Certainly the Russian leader responsible for the largest number of deaths since Stalin.

how do you reckon?

[they don't love you like i love you]

He's probably referring to the handling of Chechnya.

[H. Ross Peron]

Massive HP. Certainly the Russian leader responsible for the largest number of deaths since Stalin.

how do you reckon?

Considering the massive population crash in Russia caused at least partially by Yeltsin's policy of radical deregulation and privatization. If we are (as correctly I believe) attribute the deaths caused by the disastrous economic policies of Stalin to him rather than just the results of direct terror, we should do so the same with Yeltsin.

[Indy Texas]

Boris Yeltsin is the sort of person who I would refer to as a Fat F#@$. But that's not the kind of FF you're speaking of.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

He left office with a 2% approval rating. That's generally an indicator.

[Modernity has failed us]

Incompetent drunkard.

[Cory]

Boris Yeltsin was probably the most incompetent leader Russia had since Czar Nicholas II.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

He was better than Zhirinovsky or Zyuganov. Thats about it.

[Vosem]

Freedom Fighter. Whatever the results were (and they certainly were/are not pleasant -- my family left in 1995), he certainly Fought for Freedom.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I'd love to have gone drinking with him though

[politicus]

Freedom Fighter. Whatever the results were (and they certainly were/are not pleasant -- my family left in 1995), he certainly Fought for Freedom.

This. Yeltsin actually had the guts to stand up to the coup makers in 1991 at a time when it was
far from certain they would fail.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Freedom Fighter. Whatever the results were (and they certainly were/are not pleasant -- my family left in 1995), he certainly Fought for Freedom.

The extent to which Yeltsin-era Russia (or more broadly, Russia at any time in history) could be called "free" is debatable at best.

[RogueBeaver]

Freedom Fighter. Whatever the results were (and they certainly were/are not pleasant -- my family left in 1995), he certainly Fought for Freedom.

This. Yeltsin actually had the guts to stand up to the coup makers in 1991 at a time when it was
far from certain they would fail.

[Goldwater]

Freedom Fighter. Whatever the results were (and they certainly were/are not pleasant -- my family left in 1995), he certainly Fought for Freedom.

This. Yeltsin actually had the guts to stand up to the coup makers in 1991 at a time when it was
far from certain they would fail.

[Supersonic]

Freedom Fighter. Whatever the results were (and they certainly were/are not pleasant -- my family left in 1995), he certainly Fought for Freedom.

This. Yeltsin actually had the guts to stand up to the coup makers in 1991 at a time when it was
far from certain they would fail.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Does anyone remember the little 'incident' on the plane in Ireland? Hahaha.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I have been favorable towards him, certainly compared to what came before and after. He probably was too idealistic and impractial with regards to his domestic policies. Then of course, there is Chechnya obviously.

I don't think Russia has ever had a leader that wasn't in some way oppressive. With Yeltsin you had someone who had a vision for a Russia that could move away from that, even if it was too impractical to implement in reality, or too demanding for himself to adhere to in the present.

[Indy Texas]

If you are the leader of a country, your first and foremost job should be to make sure your country is taken seriously by the global community. Russia between Gorbachev's resignation and Putin's inauguration was a complete joke and a punchline for the rest of the world. Yeltsin failed miserably in this regard. Nothing about him was remotely presidential and he more or less embodied the stereotype of Russians as a race of corrupt, half-witted drunkards.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I can very well take arguments such as "better than immediate alternatives" or "did a right thing in 1991". Those are valid points but the fact it could have been worse doesn't make Yeltsin a competent President. The 1990s were really atrocious times.