Medvedev unveils Yeltsin monument

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev praised the country's first
post-Soviet leader, the late Boris Yeltsin, for his decisiveness and
unveiled a statue to him in his Urals hometown of Yekaterinburg on
Tuesday, RIA Novosti reports.

"Present-day Russia should be grateful to President Yeltsin for the
fact that, in our most difficult period, we did not sway from the path
of change," said Medvedev, speaking on what would have been Yeltsin's
80th birthday.

"He was a genuine leader," he added. "He was very brave and never
compromised on even insignificant, let alone significant, issues."

Medvedev also said today's Russia was "down to Boris Yeltsin and all
those who helped him form the basis for a new state."

Yeltsin, who has been both praised as a champion of democratic reforms
and criticized for impoverishing millions of Russians, died of heart
failure at the age of 76 on April 23, 2007. He was Russia's president
from 1991-1999 and was succeeded by Vladimir Putin.