I never liked Yeltsin as a politician. May his soul rest in peace, though.
Unlike Douthat comma Ross, I watched with baited breath as Yeltsin stared down the KGB (this was as close to a real-world game of RISK that you get, maybe, with consequences). But he didn't ride in that tank for mother Russia. He did it, in my estimation, so that he could become Czar Boris.
Even if you disagree with me, his administration was an abject failure, on almost any measure of good governance and stewardship. After his moment of Republican glory, he ought to have left, but he stayed on too many years.
I looked to see if Charlie Rose was going to have Stephen Cohen on tonight, because he's the only one who will tell you that the West missed key opportunities during the period after Gorbachev.
Charlie isn't interviewing him, because the President is going to be on the C-Rose show Tuesday night. I assume it is "for the hour" and that FOX's Roger Ailes via Bill O'Reilly continue to be the only ones to have ever serialized an interview with a sitting President (if I'm wrong about that, let me know, but I think it is true).
Monday, April 23, 2007
Yeltsin: One Drink, Five Years in Office Too Many
