Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990. He later stood as a political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with liberalism.
Official portrait, c. 1991–1993
Yeltsin (second from left) with childhood friends
In 1976, Yeltsin was interviewed by Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist Party, who decided that he was an appropriate choice to become First Secretary of the party's Sverdlovsk obkom.
Yeltsin with Raisa Gorbacheva
The president of the Russian Federation is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. It is the highest office in Russia.
President of Russia
Vladimir Putin takes the presidential oath in 2012
Chain of office
President Vladimir Putin delivering the 2012 Address to the Federal Assembly