April 30, 2007 6:08 AM

On Clinton on Yeltsin

Is Bill Clinton reading the Working Assets Blog? Last week, I dedicated some space to the passing of Boris Yeltsin (and tipped my hat to him a second time in a discussion of Presidential dancing). I felt much of what Yeltsin deserved credit for was being overlooked as the media remembered him as a bad Russian joke.

So Clinton was either moved by my thoughts, or maybe he had come to the same conclusion on his own, when he decided to pen yesterday's Times column remembering his "friend."

Boris Yeltsin was intelligent, passionate, emotional, strong-willed and courageous. He wasn’t perfect, and he had to contend with staggering political and economic challenges as he led Russia away from centuries of authoritarian rule. But lead he did.

It's also an interesting read in what it says about Clinton, not only Yeltsin. Russia is not on the same pro-democracy course we witnessed in the 90s, during the Clinton administration. This column, as much as a eulogy, is also a study in how a former world leader (who was intelligent, passionate and less than perfect in his own right) uses a moment in history to defend his own legacy.