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GUEST: David Kotz, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, co-author with Fred Weir of “Russia’s Path From Gorbachev to Putin”

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s funeral was held today as the Kremlin declared a national day of mourning. Yeltsin died of heart failure at the age of 76 last Monday. The former leader is being remembered outside Russia by Western leaders and mainstream press as a defender of democracy for his role in dismantling the Soviet Union. British Prime Minister Tony Blair lauded Boris Yeltsin as a “remarkable man who saw the need for democratic and economic reform.” Many commentators point to the historical moment when Boris Yeltsin stood atop an armored tuck in August 1991 to denounce an attempted coup against then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Yeltsin became president of Russia in 1991 during the last throes of the Soviet Union. His reforms and so-called democratic credentials are the mixed legacy of a controversial figure. In the fall of 2003, Yeltsin ordered troops and tanks to surround and attack Russia’s parliament in an attempt to dislodge rebelling lawmakers. Nearly a year later, President Yeltsin ordered troops into the southern region of Chechnya only to pull out, tens of thousands of deaths later. Russian troops returned and resumed hostilities in the fall of 1999 just prior to President Yeltsin’s surprise New Year’s Eve resignation. His economic legacy is one of free market shock therapy reforms that created a private sector in Russia and also impoverished many of its citizens in the process.