James Sturcke
Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin photographed in Tokyo in 2003. Photograph: Chiaki Tsukumo/AFP/Getty Images
Mr Yeltsin, who engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union, became the first popularly elected president in Russian history when he won 57% of the vote in June 1991.
His period in office was characterised by the introduction - sometimes tumultuous - of free market economics into the formerly command economy.
By the time he left power, he had become deeply unpopular over the economic "shock therapy", which saw the rise of the oligarchs, deep corruption and a huge drop in living standards.
Mr Yeltsin came to prominence in the west during an attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachov, the reformist leader of the Soviet Union, by hardline communist sympathisers in August 1991.
He responded to the coup by making a dramatic speech from the top of a tank, inspiring his supporters.
Mr Yeltsin was re-elected to office in 1996 but retired abruptly on December 31 1999, saying he had decided "Russia must enter the new millennium with new politicians". He was succeeded by the current president, Vladimir Putin.
Alexander Smirnov, a Kremlin spokesman, confirmed Mr Yeltsin had died but gave no cause of death or further information.
The Interfax news agency cited an unidentified medical source as saying the former president had died of heart failure.
He had a history of heart problems - suffering his third heart attack during his campaign for re-election - and ill health, and became the butt of jokes because of his fondness for drink, appearing drunk in public on more than one occasion.
During a stopover in Ireland while returning from talks with the then US president, Bill Clinton, in 1994, Mr Yeltsin failed to disembark from his plane to meet waiting politicians.
Although he pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, many of the country's citizens will remember him for presiding over its steep decline.
He was a contradictory figure, rocketing to popularity on pledges to fight corruption in the communist era but proving unable - or unwilling - to prevent the looting of state industry as it moved into private hands during his nine years as president.
Mr Yeltsin steadfastly defended freedom of the press, but was a master at manipulating the media.
He amassed as much power as possible in office, giving it all up in a dramatic 1999 New Year's address.
His greatest moments came in bursts, such as his spearheading of the peaceful end of the Soviet state on December 25 1991.
Ill with heart problems and facing possible defeat by a communist challenger in his 1996 re-election drive, he channelled his energy and sprinted through the final weeks of the campaign.
The challenge transformed Mr Yeltsin from a shaky convalescent into a spry, dancing candidate.
However, he was an inconsistent reformer who never took much interest in the mundane tasks of day to day government and almost always blamed Russia's myriad problems on subordinates.
Original article posted here.
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