Estimate of the time of Yeltsin's rule is ambiguous in North Caucasus

The death of the first Russian President Boris Yeltsin has not caused any special emotions in the residents of Chechnya. People feel no special grief for the deceased former Russian President.

"In due time, the Chechens actively supported Boris Yeltsin in his fight against the GKChP (State Committee on Emergency Situation), but then had a bitter regret of that," Mr. Lechi, 49, a resident of the Republic and a former member of the Vainakh Democratic Party says. "Even Shamil Basaev was on barricades in Moscow!"

"Probably, like the majority of the residents of our Republic, I can only regret that he has not faced justice for unleashing two bloody wars here and shooting down his own parliament in 1993," he added.

A similar opinion was expressed by Islam, 23, a student of one of higher schools in Grozny: "Yeltsin brought only sufferings, only blood, and only death and ruins here."

"I've heard comments of some politicians on Yeltsin. That he was a broad-scale figure, nearly a saviour of Russia, etcetera. It's absolute bosh! Yeltsin is one of the main authors of USSR collapse. I would have judged him just for all that, because all the rest: the war in Chechnya, events in the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia in 1992, wars in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorny Karabakh, Transdniestria, are only the consequences of the superpower's disintegration," Ruslan Aliev, former worker of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, is convinced.

People in Ingushetia are also differently estimating Yeltsin's role in the history of Russia. Some residents of Ingushetia think that it was thanks to Yeltsin that the Republic had got an opportunity to become independent, however, others relate not the best time in Republic's history with Yeltsin's rule, the start of the Ossetian-Ingush conflict.

Dagestan is also ambiguous in estimating the period Yeltsin's rule. However, the majority of respondents to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent's polling among residents of Makhachkala blame Yeltsin for low living standards in Dagestan and revelry of crime in the beginning and middle of the 1990s.

The first president of Russia Boris Yeltsin died suddenly on Monday, April 23, on his 77th year from progressing cardiovascular multiple organ failure. Leaders of many countries have already expressed their condolences to the family of the first president of Russia.

Boris Yeltsin became the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) president on June 12, 1991. On August 19-21, 1991, he headed the struggle against a putsch attempt undertaken by the GKChP. On August 22, by his decree Yeltsin stopped and then banned the activity of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union). In October 1991, Yeltsin headed the new government of the Russian Federation and proclaimed the program of radical reforms aimed at transition to market economy.

In late November 1994, Yeltsin authorized an attempt to overthrow of the separatists' rule of General Dzhohar Dudaev in Chechnya. The first attempt to storm Grozny failed on November 26, 1994. The fights in Grozny proceeded all the January long. By April-May 1995, Russian troops had taken most of the territory of Chechnya under control, and the war has passed over into its guerrilla stage. In August 1996, the military campaign in Chechnya ended with signing the Khasavyurt Agreements. On July 4, 1996, Yeltsin was re-elected the President of Russia.

On August 9, 1999, Yeltsin assigned the duties of Prime Minister to Vladimir Putin and declared him to be his successor. On October 2, 1999, the federal troops invaded the territory of Chechnya. On December 31, Boris Yeltsin announced his voluntary retirement and handed over his powers to V. Putin before the term.