Chris Doss The Russia Journal ------------------
This article was published in The Russia Journal ISSUE No.13 (56), DATE: 2000-04-10
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- RJ street Poll WHAT SHOULD BORIS YELTSIN'S ROLE BE NOW THAT HE IS RETIRED? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Yelena Lutayeva, retired telecom worker
Let him live as an ordinary pensioner just a little bit, feel the way we live and understand what he has done. There were good things [during his time in office] just as there were bad things, but bad prevailed, I think. So many people were driven into poverty. I don’t think it will be easy for him to accept the role of pensioner now. If he tried to survive on the meager pensions we get, he would not be able to manage. As for the guarantees [of immunity for Yeltsin], obviously Putin didn't decide it single-handedly.
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Yelena Shushulina, saleswoman
I am completely against Yeltsin, and I totally support Putin. The only role reserved for him now is being a pensioner. He led the country to a collapse. Now I have my hopes on Putin. I am 100 percent sure he will bring Russia back to its former glory. Yeltsin already showed how active he can be with his health and drinking problems that kept him away from the office for months on end. Judging from his character, the role of pensioner is not for him, and he will try to show himself in action again. He will try to advise Putin, but he should not. Let Putin decide for himself.
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Vladimir Tikhiy, retired carpenter
Pensioner, that’s what he is – or at least should be – now, like myself. I don't think there is anything for him to take part in, neither is there anything for his daughters. They, too, are just ordinary women from now on. But they still think they are something. During the [presidential] elections, they were sticking their nose in everything. People did not elect them to do that. And I am totally against the guarantees [of immunity that President-elect Vladimir] Putin gave to Yeltsin. He had no right to do that. He [Yeltsin] is just another citizen now, like you and I.
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Anton Lebedyev, high school student
I think that Boris Yeltsin should remain an ordinary Russian pensioner. He should not interfere in any affairs of state, neither should he have the right to influence Putin; and all his [Yeltsin’s] retinue should leave the Kremlin so the new president can carry out new policy. I don't have anything against Putin giving guarantees [of immunity] to Yeltsin, but they should not include the rest of his family, Tatyana Dyachenko and various oligarchs. That's not right.
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Sergei Yakovlev, law student
What I think of Boris Nikolayevich is that when he worked before the heart attack he was OK, he was active and helped Russia develop. After that, it just came to nothing. Yeltsin should rest now. He has completed his mission; he apologized for what he has not managed to do. He needs rest. Now, you see him on television, and he looks better. He's got nothing else to do but write memoirs, that's it.
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Yelena Sidorova, saleswoman
I don't think that Yeltsin should retire entirely, because Putin still has little idea of how to run the country. In my opinion, he should give Putin at least some support at the beginning, at least with advice. Yeltsin should not enter the government, of course, but there should be some sort of support from him. He cannot do more at this point; his health will not allow him. The guarantees [of immunity] for Yeltsin … are despicable. He has provided himself with everything during his term in office and does not require anything else.
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