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NEW YORK (AP) - World leaders on Monday praised Boris Yeltsin as a courageous fighter during the dramatic fall of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, and they recalled his colorful, if sometimes bizarre, personality.
Former President Bill Clinton, who was Yeltsin's U.S. counterpart for much of the 1990s, said Yeltsin believed that democracy was the only way to restore Russia's position of greatness in the post-communist era, working tirelessly toward that goal to the detriment of his own health.
"Fate gave him a tough time in which to govern, but history will be kind to him because he was courageous and steadfast on the big issues peace, freedom, and progress," Clinton said in a statement with his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton.
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