(1931–2007), Russian statesman, president of the Russian Federation 1991–9; full name Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin. Impatient with the slow pace of Gorbachev's reforms, Yeltsin resigned from the Communist Party after becoming president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1990. As president of the independent Russian Federation he faced opposition to his reforms and in 1993 survived an attempted coup, but was re-elected in 1996.