December 22, 1998

The Best of Boris

A look at Boris Yeltsin at his most bizarre and unpredictable

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Has anyone been paying attention to Boris Yeltsin recently? He stumbles around, he mumbles incoherently, he spontaneously decides to fire his whole cabinet. He’s stood up important world leaders, from Japan’s foreign minister to the U.S. treasury secretary to Ireland’s prime minister. And just this month, he left the hospital where he was being treated for pneumonia, went to the Kremlin, fired some people, drank some tea, and checked himself back into the hospital—all within three hours.

Is this comedy—or horror? (Question: Do you think Yelstin’s generals still give him control over nuclear weapons?) In the interest of the public good (and a good laugh), we offer this compendium of the best of Boris:

  • Reason Yeltsin gave, in August, why Russians shouldn’t panic about their economy: “There will be no devaluation of the ruble…. We’ve made the calculations and figured it out. That’s my job and I’m on top of things”

  • Number of days between Yeltsin’s assurance that the ruble would not be devalued and its devaluation: 3

  • Worst performance as M.C.: At a 1994 celebration in Berlin honoring the departure of the last Russian troops from Germany, Yeltsin stumbled around after the champagne lunch, blew kisses to the crowd, grabbed a microphone and started singing

  • Best reason for Canadians to dislike Yeltsin: He said Prime Minister Jean Chretien was “whining” when Chretien brought up a Canadian company’s dispute with Aeroflot, the Russian airline, during a visit in October 1997

  • One of the reasons Yeltsin gave for dismissing his entire cabinet in March: “The country needs a new team”

  • Number of months between firing Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and attempting to reinstate him: 5 months

  • Lamest excuse for bailing on a state visit: “I only have enough food with me for two days,” Yeltsin offered, declining Chinese President Jiang Zemin’s invitation to extend his November 1997 visit

  • Most inappropriate toast at a social function: When Yeltsin declared his “boundless love” for “Italian women” at a banquet with the Pope

  • Biggest diss of a foreign leader: Yeltsin “overslept” while his plane was refueling in Shannon, Ireland in 1994, missing a scheduled meeting with Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds

  • Best reason to stay on vacation: In August, Yeltsin explained to the press that if he returned to the Kremlin to deal with Russia’s economic turmoil, people could think that “a catastrophe has occured, everything is completely falling apart there”

  • Yeltsin’s age: 67 years

  • Average male life expectancy in Russia: 57.7 years

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    WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

    “Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

    That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

    That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

    Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

    This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

    “This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

    Wow.

    And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

    About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

    If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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