From the ABC

PM praises Yeltsin's contribution to democracy

Prime Minister John Howard has marked the passing of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who has died in Moscow.

Mr Howard believes Mr Yeltsin has a place in history, despite losing credibility on several economic issues.

He says nothing can wipe out the contribution Mr Yeltsin made to bringing democracy to Russia.

"I think he'll be best remembered as the person who really ultimately did save the arrival of democracy in Russia," he said.

"That momentous occasion when he stood on the tank outside the Russian Parliament and held back the counter-revolution, if I can put it that way, by the old guard of the former Soviet regime."

-------------------------

Gus: let say that many people in Russia are happy the man is gone... Basically what our rattus democrapticus calls democracy in Russia was the shop front for many an opportunist to grab as much as possible of that country's assets. These fellows, some of them now in prison for embezzlement, used many of the favored corrupt practices of the US financial tricks — tricks that left a lot of people struggling, but then it's called "free" enterprise, as long as the rest of the people are paying for it... Young Putin is a lot more astute than the old drunk.

 

Yes Gus,

Give me the anonymous hero who blocked the path of a tank in Tienamin Square any day of the week.

Oh poor Boris .... in death damned by the faint praise of a real rattus.

I'm surprised little johnnie hasn't offered him a state funeral.