The last thread

On November 25, the Yeltsin Center opened in Yekaterinburg. The ceremony was attended by Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev

Putin's presence at the opening of the memorial center left a double impression. On the one hand, for a number of purely formal and protocol issues, he undoubtedly should have been there. And because he received his power from the hands of Boris Nikolaevich, and most importantly, because the construction of the Yeltsin center, as it were, acts as a guarantee that someday his, Vladimir Putin, memorial center will open in St. Petersburg - with a museum, an archive and monument in front of the entrance. On the other hand, even the most formalized expression of respect for Boris Yeltsin in the fall of 2015, and even in the company of the most inveterate “liberota” and in the presence of the US ambassador, is a very strange message to society.

All this did not make any impression on those who are nostalgic for the times of Yeltsin, and even more so on those who are dissatisfied with him, Putin, with the style of government of citizens. There was some hitch in the ranks of Putin's admirers. It so happened that sympathy for Yeltsin or even neutrality about him among admirers of Putin's course is not only a rarity or an exception, it is an absolutely impossible thing. It is considered good form to throw mud at the first president of Russia and blame him for everything - both for the "collapse of the USSR" and for all the problems of the modern Russian economy. In short, any other politician attending such an event in November 2015 in such a society would have been immediately cursed and blamed.

He collapsed - the quasi-patriotic public did not stint on scoffing at the address of the aged idols of the Yeltsin era and sympathizers who gathered for the ceremony, not noticing Putin among others. And yet, why did he come?

Now that Russia has de facto found itself in a situation of international isolation that is unbelievable even for Soviet times, Putin, paradoxically, needed Yeltsin

A protocol obligation is nothing under the conditions of authoritarianism, Putin is calmly late for any event (and he was late here too), and if he suddenly doesn’t show up at all, there will be no one who dares to blame him for this, not counting opposition bloggers and a couple media triplets. Especially in those hours when the conflict with Turkey is unfolding and the excited chauvinist public most of all expects foreign policy toughness from him, and not laying flowers at the Yeltsin monument. But for some reason he comes. Maybe because for him Yeltsin is a benefactor to whom he owes his incredible ascent. Or maybe because Yeltsin is also the foundation of his international legitimacy. After all, it was Yeltsin who brought Putin into the circle of the world elite, leaving him a place in the G8 and much more. Now that Russia has de facto found itself in a situation of international isolation that is unbelievable even for Soviet times, Putin, paradoxically, needed Yeltsin. Dead, spat on and slandered by propagandists, he remains the only thread connecting Putin with the elite of the civilized world. Or the memory that such a connection once existed.