BORIS YELTSIN left Moscow on March 3 for the seaside resort of Sochi—not to argue over the Black Sea fleet with Ukrainian leaders, but to take a Kennebunkport-style “working holiday.”
Mr. Yeltsin’s choice, not only to leave the capital but to go to the same shore where Mikhail Gorbachev was vacationing when the putschists’ tanks rolled into Moscow, is a bold statement of confidence in the face of increasing criticism. “Patriots” may be calling for his resignation, newspapers may be predicting another coup attempt, and his own vice president may be demanding that he fire his economic SWAT team, but Boris Nikolayevich is standing firm.




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