JRL NEWSWATCH: “Boris Yeltsin’s shrine in Yekaterinburg brings tears for a legacy smashed by Putin” – Sunday Times (UK)/ Matthew Campbell

Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin

“… An ailing Yeltsin is believed to have chosen Putin, a former KGB officer, as his successor, because he had a reputation for loyalty. He knew he could count on Putin to protect him and his family. … [H]e made Putin promise to ‘look after Russia.’ In the eyes of Putin’s supporters, he has … [brought] relative prosperity … making [Russia] great again. But he is also stifling the freedoms Yeltsin fought for. … Yeltsin’s American-style presidential library and museum, a celebration of his dream of a ‘civilised democracy,’ is itself under threat. Some of the hardliners around Putin want to shut it down. Ismail Berdiyev, a Putin ally, called for it to be ‘blown to hell.’ … Putin presides over Russia like a modern tsar with a vast retinue of fawning courtiers. …”

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