Once more, from today's Independent: The state over which Yeltsin presided had installed a democratic political system, albeit one in which powerful sectional interests wielded excessive influence. But, by any economic measure, society as a whole had benefited only marginally, and growing numbers had fallen far below the poverty line. Corruption and criminality were rampant throughout the political and economic structures and deterred the Western bankers who had fed them.
On the other hand, he did appoint Vladimir Putin - "ex-KGB intelligence officer and former deputy to the corrupt former mayor of St Petersburg" - as his heir. So not entirely bad. After all, it isn't every country that can boast a leader who's inspired J.K. Rowling to create one of her least attractive characters: the sly, deceitful, wheedling, essentially sub-human Dobby.
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