The Wire

Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia – who presided over the transition of the economy from communism to capitalism – died overnight aged 76. Tributes have been flowing in from leaders from all over the west, as well as from within Russia, with much focus on Yeltsin’s strength as a leader in a difficult time, as well as his ill health and alcoholism in office. However, he presided over the sell off state assets in the 1990s, which saw many of the states companies bought up at an extremely reduced rate by a small group of business men, who now make up the country’s rich elite.