I was surprised to read in "Yeltsin: a contradictory figure who led Russia to democracy and free trade" (April 24) that Yeltsin had failed to emerge from his aircraft to meet the Irish government at Shannon.
I have a memory of President Clinton failing to emerge from his aircraft to meet the Irish government because he was having his hair cut. The first democratic leader of Russia and derided for being a bit of a "bear". Perhaps the west is miffed that he did not employ Saatchi & Saatchi to airbrush out the thousand years of Russian history that had voted him in as the people's first democratic leader of choice.
One has to remember that "nice" Mr Gorbachev, the West's choice, was hated in Russia for putting up the price of vodka. Niall Barker, 5 Grosvenor Crescent, Glasgow. YOUR cartoon featuring Boris Yeltsin lying in state in a bottle was in bad taste (April 24) .
Whatever we think about Yeltsin's drinking, I will always remember speaking to a guide in Moscow some years ago who said: "In the west you make a big deal about Gorbachev, but here in Russia we know it was Boris Yeltsin who secured our freedom." Jack Mulhearn, 27 Hillside Road, Glasgow.
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