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Yeltsin tells the press he wants to get about more
Interfax

Moscow, 29 December: First Russian President Boris Yeltsin today met with a group of journalists who were accredited in the Kremlin during his presidency.

Yeltsin noted that many of the journalists probably "bear a grudge" against him for rare meetings and interviews. "The matter is that I don't want to be a public politician anymore," he said.

Yeltsin said he does "not regret resigning from the presidential post in 1999, as Russia is continuing the policy of reforms, deepening them, the freedom of speech is preserved and journalists can write on any subject". Yeltsin said he is convinced of this by regular viewing of TV programmes and reading Russian newspapers.

The first Russian president said he receives "a lot of correspondence both from Russia and abroad" and regularly meets with his former colleagues.

Yeltsin, who received members of the press in his Barvikha-4 residence outside Moscow, looked hale and hearty and demonstrated his awareness of the developments in Russia and the rest of the world. He said, in particular, that he would like "to travel around the country and the world freely", because in his previous capacity he was very limited in time and did not get a true impression of the places he visited as president.