i don t know h . translator: i don t know how to feed my kids without milk. i just don t know what we re going to do. reporter: president boris yeltsen was in charge, but he seemed increasingly unstable. he is drinking. he is barely being propped up. reporter: russians began calling for a new leader. they were tired of the embarrassments of yeltsen. reporter: waiting in the wings was vladimir putin. he had taken a job inhierarchy, had risen through the ranks with lightning speed. from bureaucrat to superstar. reporter: he had become acting prime minister when it had become blatantly clear, the
country needed a new president. when yeltsen was ready to topple over, they were waiting and he could not be put in jail. reporter: he was notoriously corrupt, but power brokers wanted to protect him. so the deal was made. the deal was made. reporter: december 31, 1999. the surprise announcement from boris yeltsen that he is resigning as president and turning over power to his prime minister, vladimir putin. reporter: in the very first moments of the 21st century, vladimir putin became president of russia. his first words [ speaking foreign language ] reporter: we live in a competitive world, and we are not among its leaders. and right away, putin began to
was as careful as they had always been. they would have noted this. as we talk about in the book, the history of the compromise by the fsb, learning from their fore fathers in the kgb, in fact, vladimir putin, we have the story in the book, came to power as a result of a sexual compromise, there was a prosecutor on the tale of boris yeltsen and suddenly a tape shows up of this prosecutor in bed with two prostitutes. it shows up on russian television. the prosecutor is forced to resign. the director of the fsb at the time was vladimir putin. after that tape emerged, he s named the successor as the president of russia.
trump. but we should ignore the fact that they intervened in this election and tried to hurt one candidate? they re trying to do this in europe right now to other candidates. we should respond to that. we should investigate it. trying to get boris yeltsen reelected, i m not saying either one is good. but i m not saying they re not unprecedented. they re gambling going on in this casino. these are criminal acts. it was wrong in we intervened in russia, but we shouldn t sit back and we should have a special committee to investigate and put the people in jail who can be found guilty if there s enough to find them guilty. we don t have clarity. you re saying there should be an investigation, but we shouldn t be surprised that russia tried to intervene? is that what yes, absolutely. look i m trying to follow you here. in the same article in which he coined the term cold war, george orwell said that it s commonplace that the history of civilization is the history of
now boris himself was loved by had. a charismatic man. one of the few politicians really willing to take on the kremlin. done so in an radio interview a very short time ago. as one russian put it the last of the new reformer generation that came to power after the collapse of the soviet union. he was gunned down with four shots to the back as he crossed a moscow bridge last night with a woman who was unharmed. the killer or killers shot him as they drove by in a white car. he himself was deputy prime minister under boris yeltsen. his political star had fallen during the putin years as the stars of so many liberals did which is what many say is what the kremlin wanted. he had been preparing what may have proved to be a somewhat damning report about russian involvement in ukraine when he was killed. president vladimir putin has condemned murder calling it a contract killing and a provocation. leaving that rather unclear exactly what he means but he has said that he s to personally overse