fit as a fiddle

Image: Boris Yelstin has been known to be quite the party-boy -- drinking vodka and getting up on stage and dancing with rock bands during campaign appearances. He has also suffered repeated ailments which confined him to the hospital. Although his resignation is called for each time, he has refused to capitulate, returning to work vowing he is alive and well, occasionally firing his entire cabinet in a blustery display of political power. In Yeltsin, like leaders before him, do we see vestiges of the old Soviet habit of preserving leaders? (credit: captured from Soviet State Television, 1998) Sound: coming soon

(c) 1999 John Borneman & Linda Fisher, All Rights Reserved