RUSSIA: Small village in Russia's Urals not willing to heap praise on its most famous son Boris Yeltsin

Record ID: 737932

  • Title: RUSSIA: Small village in Russia's Urals not willing to heap praise on its most famous son Boris Yeltsin
  • Date: 25th April 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) VILLAGER, ZOYA ARISTOVA, ASKED ABOUT THE DEATH OF FROMER RUSSIAN PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN, SAYING: "It's a sad event. How he lived, what he did, only God will judge, we cannot do anything with that." (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) BORIS YELSTIN'S COUSIN STANISLAV GLEBOV SAYING: "His actions were of course harmful, for Russians, for Russia, and not only for Russia."
  • Embargoed: 10th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Obituaries
  • Reuters ID: LVA9V1VIQ6V37HUS2G4C9THU2IP6
  • Story Text: Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin did not impress the residents of his home village despite bringing democracy to the country.

    The small village of Butka in the Urals region is the birth place of Russia's first post-Communist president Boris Yeltsin, who died on Monday (April 23), aged 76.
    Hundreds of Russians filed past Boris Yeltsin's open coffin in Moscow on Tuesday (April 24) to pay their respects to the man who dismantled the Soviet Union and led Russia in its first chaotic years of independence.
    But no special events were held in Yeltsin's birth place on Tuesday, and Butka residents were reluctant to heap praise on its most famous son.
    "It's a sad event. How he lived, what he did, only God will judge, we cannot do anything with that," said villager Zoya Aristova.
    But Stanislav Glebov, a cousin of the former Russia president, said his time in office had produced hardships and upheaval.
    "His actions were of course harmful, for Russians, for Russia, and not only for Russia," said Glebov.
    A house belonging to Yeltsin's parents still stands in the village. At a local school, a corner of the library is dedicated to a small exhibit about the former Russian president. But that is all that Butka seems to want to remember about Yeltsin.
    Yeltsin's successor, President Vladimir Putin has declared a national day of mourning on Wednesday (April 25).
    Russia's first democratically elected leader is to be buried at the Novodevichye cemetery in a break from the past. Kremlin leaders have traditionally been buried in Red Square, where a mausoleum houses the body of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.
    Yeltsin won tributes for bringing democracy to Russia after eight decades of authoritarian rule. But his eight years in office were marked by economic meltdown, political chaos, a costly war against rebels in Chechnya and drink-fuelled gaffes. mos/jrc
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