Yeltsin Quotes

“With Yeltsin, the Soviet Union broke apart, the country was totally mismanaged, the constitution was not respected by the regions of Russia. The army, education and health systems collapsed. People in the West quietly applauded, dancing with and around Yeltsin. I conclude therefore that we should not pay too much attention to what the West is saying.”

— Mikhail Gorbachev

“On December 9, 1994, Yeltsin issued a statement ordering the Federal army to execute the disarmament of all illegal armed units in Chechnya, or as they were known locally, the government.”

— Anthony Marra

“I'm not going into personal details of meetings I have with anybody, be it John Howard or President Bush or President Putin or President Yeltsin, in years gone by, whoever it may be, I'm not going into that.”

— Alexander Downer

“I am a Soviet man, and Yeltsin is a Soviet man - maybe our grandchildren will be different.”

— Aleksandr Lebed

“I knew President Yeltsin well. He would never have tolerated government officials demonstratively showing off the millions they acquired through corruption, the way it's done today.”

— Mikhail Khodorkovsky

“We've worked with President Yeltsin. He is the President of the country. He's been a reformer. We've been able to accomplish a number of things together.”

— Warren Christopher

“What do you think it's worth, Lassiter, finding and returning the priceless heritage of a nation?" "How about a Boy Scout merit badge and a thank-you note from Yeltsin?" Above us,”

— Paul Levine

“Russia, despite its heavy flirtation with capitalism and some quite unsavory oligarchs, is still building its foreign policy on the Soviet ideals of internationalism, solidarity and logic. And even domestically, President [Vladin]Putin is slowly, step-by-step, restoring many important Soviet achievements that were torpedoed by a nitwit, and one gangster - [Mikhail] Gorbachev and [Boris] Yeltsin.”

— Andre Vltchek

“The Kremlin said Yeltsin was committed to the deal, however. President Yeltsin states clearly and unequivocally that he is an initiator of the unification of the two fraternal states and their peoples, a consistent and firm supporter of it, ... It is a geopolitical necessity and an economic reality.”

— Sergey Yastrzhembsky

“Nixon urged Clinton to maintain his relationship with Yeltsin but make contact with other democrats in Russia. He warned Clinton away from some ultranationalists and toward those interested in liberty and reform. He pressed Clinton to replace his ambassador in Kiev and concentrate future U.S. economic aid on Ukraine, where it would matter most.”

— Nancy Gibbs

“The citizen lives in each of us. In the days of Brezhnev, Andropov, Gorbachev and Yeltsin, I was constantly trying to suppress the responsible citizen in me. I told myself that I was, after all, an artist.”

— Vladimir Sorokin

“I have Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to thank that a Russian writer can not only write anything he wants, but also publish it.”

— Vladimir Sorokin