Feburary 1st – Boris Yeltsin’s Birthday…

Medvedev unveils monument to Yeltsin:

Boris Yeltsin is a strange sometimes volital topic in Russia to discuss. If you mention his name you have about a 50 / 50 split as to what reaction you will get. I have really seen no middle of the road yet…

Russians either like him or they don’t. Now they have a huge statue of him to stare at…

President Dmitry Medvedev has arrived in Yekaterinburg where he is set to attend the opening ceremony of a monument to former Russian head of state Boris Yeltsin, who today would have turned 80 years old. Sculptor Georgy Frangulyan says the monument comprises several pieces of marble weighing 15 tons each and stands at around 10 meters tall. Frangulyan noted that the monument’s dynamic composition symbolises Yeltsin’s energy.

What I am not sure about on this particular occasion: Medvedev has made a few statements about Yeltsin and that Russia should embrace the real value of reforms made by Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin…

Has Medvedev stepped right or wrong in his endorsement of a man that is either loved or hated equally?

I know what my wife says about him (Yeltsin) and she don’t like him… 🙂

I guess time will see…

  • Yeltsin laid foundations of modern Russia – Medvedev (rt.com)
  • Boris Yeltsin: What’s in a name? (rt.com)
  • Yeltsin: epitome of 1990s Russia remembered (rt.com)
  • Human rights “immediate” issue for society – Medvedev (rt.com)
  • Rehabilitating Yeltsin (bbc.co.uk)
  • Statue of Yeltsin to be unveiled (bbc.co.uk)
  • Yeltsin was fond of protocol, order and would never be late – former head of protocol (rt.com)

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