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.
BORIS YELTSINLet’s not talk about Communism. Communism was just and idea, just pie in the sky.
More 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.
BORIS YELTSIN -
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.
BORIS YELTSIN -
The Soviet Union could not exist without the image of the empire. The image of the empire could not exist without the image of force. The USSR ended the moment the first hammer pounded the Berlin Wall.
BORIS YELTSIN -
International terrorism is throwing down a challenge, and not just to Russia.
BORIS YELTSIN -
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.
BORIS YELTSIN -
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.
BORIS YELTSIN -
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.
BORIS YELTSIN -
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.
BORIS YELTSIN -
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.
BORIS YELTSIN -
I will not step down, I will not resign, … I will work to the end of my term in office under the constitution. In the year 2000, there will be presidential elections under the constitution and I will not run in those elections.
BORIS YELTSIN -
A government is not an old pair of socks that you throw away.
BORIS YELTSIN -
We want peace and a political solution to the situation in Chechnya.
BORIS YELTSIN -
A sense of proportion and humanitarian action are not issues for terrorists. Their aim is that of killing and destroying.
BORIS YELTSIN -
It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.
BORIS YELTSIN -
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.
BORIS YELTSIN