If Yeltsin would continue his grand strategy, today's Russia would resemble today's China – Russia would be much more powerful than it is in 2025 - do you agree on this statement?

Boris Yeltsin couldn’t “continue his grand strategy” — he had to leave the office of the president in May 2000, by law. He was ineligible to be re-elected — he already served 2 terms.

What Yeltsin had to do, was to ensure democratic elections were held in March 2000.

Instead, Yeltsin appointed a thoroughly corrupt Putin, first to the job of the director of the FSB (a general’s position — and Putin was only a colonel, plus he was out of the state security for nearly a decade, stealing state assets in St. Petersburg as Sobchak’s “deal maker”) — and after that, Yeltsin quickly appointed Putin as the prime-minister of Russia.

By Russia’s Constitution, it’s the prime-minister that replaces the President if he resigns or gets sick.

So, after a few months, Yeltsin resigned — and left Putin in charge.

And then Yeltsin endorsed Putin for the presidential elections.

The FSB killed 300 Russians to start a war in Chechnya, which made a totally unknown Putin famous — and with Yeltsin’s media oligarchs backing (who bragged they could make anyone a president) and the oligarch-owned TV broadcasts, Putin was elected.

It was an anti-democratic coup.
And it was sanctioned and approved by Yeltsin.

So, Yeltsin failed his most important task — to leave Russia a democracy.

It’s pointless to speculate what would happen if he decided to change the constitution and stay in power.

Probably, a Revolution that would break Russia into several smaller states.

Which is long overdue, by the way.