Boris Yeltsin Quotes

A total of 1,580 people, the civilian population, suffered as a result of the bloody wave of terrorist acts that swept over Moscow and other towns and villages of our country.

You can build a throne with bayonets, but it's difficult to sit on it.

Gorbachev gave us freedom of worship and freedom of speech and freedom to see what was going on and freedom to vote, but that freedom won't last unless it is underpinned by economic freedom.

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical

A man must live like a great brilliant flame and burn as brightly as he can. In the end he burns out. But this is far better than a mean little flame.

Let's not talk about Communism. Communism was just and idea, just pie in the sky.

We don't appreciate what we have until it's gone. Freedom is like that. It's like air. When you have it, you don't notice it.

Liberty sets the mind free, fosters independence and unorthodox thinking and ideas. But it does not offer instant prosperity or happiness and wealth to everyone.

Money, big money (which is actually a relative concept) is always, under any circumstances, a seduction, a test of morals, a temptation to sin.

A politician must have some scruples, a certain decency; he cannot smear himself in the mud for the sake of a high ideal.

I cannot shift the blame for Chechnya, for the sorrow of numerous mothers and fathers. I made the decision, therefore I am responsible.

Your commanders have ordered you to storm the White House and to arrest me. But I as the elected President of Russia give you the order to turn your tanks and not to fight against your own people.

You have no right to criticise Russia over Chechnya.

We Russians are already living, not getting ready to live.

I ask you to forgive me for not fulfilling some hopes of those people who believed that we would be able to jump from the totalitarian past into a bright, rich and civilized future in one go.

I understand that it's hard for everyone, but one cannot give in to emotions... we'll have to draw lessons from the current crisis and now we'll have to work on overcoming it.

I would like to stress here that a lasting peace in the Chechen republic and so-called peace talks with the bandits are not the same thing, and I would ask everyone to make no mistake about that.

We, Russia, are prepared to work with others. I am convinced that stability and security in Europe cannot be considered without taking Russia into account.

One could see that what you are writing was that today's meeting with President Bill Clinton was going to be a disaster. Now, for the first time, I can tell you that you are a disaster.

The most important thing is that Milosevic agreed to sit at the negotiating table with the Kosovo Albanians

While maintaining our nuclear potential at the proper level, we need to devote more attention to developing the entire range of means of information warfare

Thousands of mercenaries, who have trained in camps on the territory of Chechnya as well as come in from abroad, are actually preparing to impose extremist ideas on the whole world.

I especially love driving down a hill directly at a tree and swerving to one side at the last moment. That's my way to relax.

I refer to calls for humanitarian intervention in the affairs of another state - a new idea, this - even when they are made under the pretext of defending human rights and freedoms.

Russia also declared its independence. This was approved by the Supreme Soviet, and you know and remember that there was the Declaration on the Independence of Russia.

International terrorism is throwing down a challenge, and not just to Russia.

A government is not an old pair of socks that you throw away.

We want peace and a political solution to the situation in Chechnya.

Storm clouds of terror and dictatorship are gathering over the whole country... They must not be allowed to bring eternal night.

Not a single reform effort in Russia has ever been completed.

A sense of proportion and humanitarian action are not issues for terrorists. Their aim is that of killing and destroying.

I believe in this tragic hour you can make the right choice. The honor and glory of Russian men of arms shall not be stained with the blood of the people.