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Leader who could not put Humpty together again; After delivering the death blow to the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin was unable to deliver on promises of democracy and prosperity for Russia, writes Maura Reynolds.(Dispatches)

Boris N Yeltsin, the bearish peasant, who struck the death blow that shattered the Soviet Union and then served as the first president of the disorderly Russia that emerged, died on Monday. He was 76.

Yeltsin had been plagued by heart and other health problems.

He was the first leader in Russian history - medieval, imperial or Soviet - to be democratically elected. He also was the first to voluntarily relinquish power, resigning on New Year's Eve, 1999, in favour of Putin.

Yeltsin wrenched his country out of more than 70 years of Communist Party rule. He freed the Soviet Union's constituent republics, creating 15 countries that stretched from Europe to China. He ...

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