End of Yeltsin era

Mainichi Shimbun, Tuesday 3 January 2000

The Yeltsin era came to an abrupt end Friday when Russian President Boris Yeltsin stepped down before the end of his term and handed the reins of government to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. In an interview last July, Yeltsin stated that the next change of government would be “civilized.” But he had probably originally intended to serve out his term and pass the baton to the next president to show that he had transformed a communist system into a democratic one.

Yeltsin surely changed his plans because he wanted to clear the way for Putin to ride his current popularity to victory in the next presidential election, which will be held in three months in accordance with the Russian Constitution. Putin's handling of the war against Chechnya appeals to many Russians. But if the war were to drag on or turn against Russia, Putin's popularity could suffer. Yeltsin may also have been trying to save his own skin by resigning at this time. One of acting-President Putin's first acts was to extend a grant of immunity to Yeltsin.

Yeltsin first stepped into the limelight during the Gorbachev era as a radical reformer who criticized the Gorbachev regime's lukewarm commitment to reform. When conservatives staged a coup d’etat in August 1991, Yeltsin stood on top of a tank and denounced it. Yeltsin assumed the upper hand in his power struggle with Gorbachev by becoming a champion of democracy.

Four months later, the Soviet Union disbanded and the Commonwealth of Independent States was formed. After coming to power, Yeltsin undertook market reforms and a privatization drive which gave rise to hyperinflation and unleashed social unrest. But Yeltsin blamed the Communist-led Parliament for impeding reforms. When anti-Yeltsin forces broke into the Parliament building in October 1993, he ordered the army to seize the building.

Yeltsin was a former elite official of the Communist Party. As president, he waged many battles with the party but was not able to abandon the strongarm tactics of the Communist Party from which he came. The appointments that he made were often blatant attempts to solidify his grip on power, and he allowed himself to be surrounded by a family of associates who were corrupted by money.

During Yeltsin's tenure as president, the United States emerged as the world's only superpower, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) embraced states that were formerly part of the former Soviet bloc, the ruble crashed in the summer of 1998, and NATO bombed Yugoslavia. These events reminded Russia that its attempt to join the West was an illusion. The Yeltsin administration would not have welcomed an upsurge in anti-Western patriotism under normal circumstances but has been forced to ride the nationalist wave recently.

When announcing his resignation, Yeltsin blamed the economic crisis on his “lack of consistency” and asked for forgiveness for “dreams that never came true.” The process of democratic and market reform that Yeltsin initiated is still under way.

The change in Russia's leadership will inevitably have an impact on Japanese-Russian relations. Japan's foreign minister is scheduled to meet with his Russian counterpart at the end of this month, and we hope that Japan continues to pursue a steady diplomacy toward Russia while demanding a solution to the territorial dispute.