Bye Bye Boris

Boris Yeltsin died today and his remaining image will forever be him stood upon the tank outside the Russian parliament building and calling upon his supporters to resist a coup of hard-line Communists who had seized power from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Everyone and his dog is going to mention about his achievements and failures so i am going to mention one of the stories that summed up the man. 1994 and on a trip back to Russia after a G-7 economic summit meeting in Canada, Yeltsin landed in Ireland to meet with the Irish prime minister at the airport. Hours passed with Irish officials still waiting on the tarmac for a ceremonial appearance by the two leaders. Suddenly a Russian officials scuttled down the stairs of the aircraft to announced that Yeltsin was 'too tired' to meet with the Irish prime minister.Much embarrassment followed but Yeltsin was safely sleeping off his hangover back in Russia when it emerged that he had actually been smashed out of his skull on vodka.He did some good things and he did bad things but he will always be the drunk Russian who was too pissed to get off the plane to me.