Russia. Yeltsin informs his aides of his decision to hand over the presidency to Vladimir Putin. Yeltsin bids an emotional farewell: “Many of our hopes have not been realized. What we thought would be easy has turned out to be painfully difficult. I would like to apologize to those who thought that, with a single leap, we could leave behind a gray and stagnant past and move toward a bright and prosperous future of progress. I believed it myself. But it wasn’t possible. In a certain sense, I was naive. But I did everything I could.” Then, turning to Putin, he concludes: “Take care of Russia.”
