Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
After years of deteriorating health, Boris Yeltsin died of congestive heart failure in 2007.
He is buried in Novodevichy Cemetery, where his grave is marked by an enormous Russi-
an flag, which is sculpted out of stone but gives the appearance that it is rippling in the
wind.
Economic Prosperity
In the new Russia, wealth was concentrated in Moscow. While the rest of Russia struggled
to survive the collapse of the command economy, Moscow emerged quickly as an enclave
of affluence and dynamism. By the mid-1990s Moscow was replete with all the things Rus-
sians had expected capitalism to bring, but had yet to trickle down to the provinces: banks,
shops, restaurants, casinos, BMWs, bright lights and nightlife.
The city provided nearly 25% of all tax revenues collected by the federal government.
Commercial banks, commodity exchanges, big businesses and high-end retailers all set up
headquarters in the capital. By the late 1990s, Moscow had become one of the most expens-
ive cities in the world.
When the government defaulted on its debts and devalued the currency in 1998, it ap-
peared that the boom had gone bust. But as the panic subsided, it became clear that it was
less a crisis and more a correction for a badly overvalued rouble. Russian firms became
more competitive and productive with the new exchange rate. Wages started to be paid
again and consumption increased.
Millennium Moscow
In 2005, Yelena Baturina, property magnate and wife of Mayor Luzhkov, became Russia's
first female billionaire. The wife of the current mayor, Irina Sobyana, is also in the con-
struction industry, although she has yet to register on any lists of richest people.
Cops in the Kremlin
In December 1999 Boris Yeltsin delivered his customary televised New Year's greeting to
the nation. On this occasion the burly president shocked his fellow countryfolk yet again by
announcing his resignation from office and retirement from politics. The once-combative
Yeltsin had grown weary from a decade full of political adversity and physical infirmity.
Yeltsin turned over the office to his recently appointed prime minister, Vladimir Putin. As
an aide to the president, Putin had impressed Yeltsin with his selfless dedication, shrewd
