Politics

Blame This Drunken Bear for Vladimir Putin

’90s Chaos

Bill Clinton had to call Russia’s first president early in the day to catch him sober. But the U.S. could work with Yeltsin—though he chose a successor who would ‘repudiate his legacy.’

articles/2014/04/22/blame-this-drunken-bear-for-vladimir-putin/140418-clift-yeltsin-tease_vfcndt
Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

As the first president of the Russian Federation after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin’s biggest mistake was picking Vladimir Putin as his seventh or ninth prime minister.

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