Sometimes, it takes an addict: Boris Yeltsin
Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, dead of cardiovascular problems at age 76. Except for the fact that he didn't seem to crave totalitarian power--but given Soviet circumstances, he may have not been in a position to wield it--he exhibited many of the classic symptoms of middle- to late-stage alcoholism while in power. He was erratic and he thrived on crises, seemed bored by normalcy, was guided not so much by reason as gut instinct and was defiant. He went into tirades during which he publicly criticized communist party leadership during Gorbachev's perestroika, including Gorbachev and even his wife Raisa, resulting in his expulsion from the Politburo. When elected president of the Russian Federation in 1991, he wasted little time in ...
