Via the BBC: Russian ex-president Yeltsin dies

Boris Yeltsin, who oversaw the Soviet Union’s demise and became Russia’s first president, has died aged 76, the Kremlin says.

Mr Yeltsin had a history of heart trouble, though the cause of death has not been announced.

While Yeltsin conjures jokes about too much vodka, the fact of the matter is that he was a key figure in the historical development of the Soviet and then Russian politics and to the international system as a whole.

Some key dates in Yeltsin’s career:

July 1990: Resigns from Communist Party
June 1991: Elected president of Russian republic (in USSR)
August 1991: Rallies citizens against anti-Gorbachev coup, bans Russian communist party
December 1991: Takes over from Mikhail Gorbachev as head of state
1992: Lifts price controls, launches privatisation
October 1993: Russia on brink of civil war, Yeltsin orders tanks to fire at parliament
December 1994: Sends tanks into Chechnya
June 1996: Re-elected as Russian president, suffers heart attack during campaign
1998: Financial crisis, rouble loses 75% of its value
December 1999: Resigns, appoints Vladimir Putin successor