CRISIS IN THE KREMLIN : The Boost for Boris Yeltsin

Boris N. Yeltsin is emerging from the Soviet crisis as a powerful politician in the view of experts on Soviet affairs and a personal hero. Among the things being said to boost Yeltsin’s status:

“He has shown tremendous courage. I think he will have a well-earned stature around the world that he might not have had. . . . It is so clear to me that if this coup fails, democracy will take a gigantic leap forward. We will have seen its inherent strength. We will have seen that a courageous leader standing up for principle can rally an enormous number of people behind him.”

--President Bush

“The fantastic element in this whole putsch is that the leaders didn’t understand their enemy was Yeltsin, not Gorbachev. The decisive confrontation was always between democrats like Yeltsin and the conservatives.”

--Helmut Hubel, the German Society for Foreign Policy

“How could they shut down all those newspapers, and still let Yeltsin get up and give those provocative speeches?”

--Radio Liberty station director Enders Wimbush

“When confronted with extraordinary danger and challenge, he acted courageously. I was impressed. He became the symbol of resistance.”

--Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney

Yeltsin showed “courage which contributed to the triumph of democracy.”

--Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

“Yeltsin! Yeltsin! Spasibo!” (Russian for thank you)

--Cry in the streets near the Russian Parliament building