Boris Yeltsin, the first president of the Russian Federation died suddenly on Monday, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported quoting the Kremlin press service.

Yeltsin was 76. According to preliminary reports the cause of death was heart failure.

Yeltsin, who became Russia’s president in 1991 and survived two armed uprisings by hardline communists, resigned suddenly Dec. 31, 1999, after suffering several heart attacks and being hospitalized with pneumonia.

Boris Yeltsin will be buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery on 25 April 2007. April 25th was declared by President Putin to be a national day of mourning with flags flown at half-staff and all entertainment programs suspended for the day.

Shortly after the news broke, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev issued a statement, saying: “I offer my deepest condolences to the family of a man on whose shoulders rested many great deeds for the good of the country and serious mistakes—a tragic fate”.

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U.S. President George W. Bush said in a statement: “President Yeltsin was an historic figure who served his country during a time of momentous change. He played a key role as the Soviet Union dissolved, helped lay the foundations of freedom in Russia, and became the first democratically elected leader in that country’s history.”

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said: “No Americans, at least, will forget seeing him standing on the tank outside of the [Russian] White House resisting the coup attempt.”

President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said: “As president, he had enormous challenges and difficult mandates, but he certainly brought East and West closer together and helped replace confrontation by cooperation.”

In a message to Mr Yeltsin’s wife, Naina Yeltsina, President Jacques Chirac said that “the world will keep of President Yeltsin the memory of a man who, by his courage, his tenacity and his political direction, knew to make the triumph of freedom and engage Russia on the way to democracy.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “Yeltsin was a great personality in Russian and international politics, a brave fighter for democracy and freedom and a true friend of Germany”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “He was a remarkable man who saw the need for democratic and economic reform and in defending that reform he played a vital role at a crucial time in Russia’s history.”

Finnish President Tarja Halonen commented: “President Yeltsin had a significant role in developing democracy in Russia .. I respect Yeltsin’s work for developing Russia, and I enact my condolences to the people of Russia on account of Yeltsin’s death”

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Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said: Yeltsin “played a significant role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union as a totalitarian regime and the birth of a new Russia, whereby he contributed to democratic changes in Europe during the 1980s and 1990s.”

Serbian President Boris Tadić offered  “deepest condolences to the family, Russian people and Vladimir Putin for death of the first democratic Russian leader”.

Prime Minister of Denmark, Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: “It’s sad news, that Boris Yeltsin is dead. We owe the former Russian president respect for standing ground for the democracy of Russia.”

Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt said: “Without a doubt, President Yeltsin — with all the human weaknesses no one is free of — was one of the truly great men of our age. When all was uncertain in the disintegrating Soviet Union, he was the one to set a new course by abolishing the Soviet Union and recognising the independence of the three Baltic States.

His repudiation of Communism was unequivocal, and he clearly directed the new Russia towards ever closer cooperation with the rest of Europe. He was a great person in the history of Russia and of Europe.”

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