In praise of Yeltsin.(Foreign Affairs)(Boris Yeltsin )

IN THE 1960S I HOPED, without much confidence, that the world's four trouble spots might one day be free: Israel from the threats of neighbours, South Africa from apartheid, Northern Ireland from sectarian domination, and Russia from communism. The latter seemed the most important and least likely. For decades few hopeful signs emerged--the tundra seemed immovably frozen. Then suddenly in the mid-1980s came signs things were thawing, the tectonic plates began to move. South Africa and Russia came out of their oppression with astounding speed, with almost no preliminary expectations that change was imminent, and with no violence. But recently both have begun to slip back ...