Boris Yeltsin had earned a reputation for the unexpected, from ordering tanks to attack his rebellious parliament to drunkenly directing a military orchestra in Germany. Yet he saved one of his biggest surprises for last.
“I am leaving. I have done all I could,” President Yeltsin said, slurring his words in a televised New Year address in 1999, as the world prepared to celebrate the new millennium. Russia’s ailing leader still had half a year of his second term left to run and no one had expected him to stand down early.
“Why cling to power for six more months when the country has a strong leader who can be its president, a man on whom nearly all Russians are pinning their hopes for the future? Why stand in his way?” he said.
