Yeltsin attacks Putin over anthem

Putin has been consulting critics about the change

The former Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, has strongly criticised the present head of state, Vladimir Putin, for supporting the reintroduction of the Soviet-era national anthem.

My only association with the old anthem is party congresses and conferences

Former President Boris Yeltsin

Mr Yeltsin's comments are said to be the first public criticism of the man he promoted to be his successor.

Mr Putin is in favour of scrapping the current wordless anthem and using the old Soviet tune, but with new words.

Parliament is expected to endorse the new plan on Friday, after a long-running national debate which was reignited by complaints from the top Russian football team.

But what about the tune?

Mr Putin has won backing from various quarters, including the Orthodox church, but opponents have called it a big mistake.

Yeltsin (right) and his chosen successor

They say that restoring the old anthem would revive memories of totalitarian rule and political repression.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russia ditched the anthem - with its references to the glorious deeds of Lenin and Stalin - and replaced it with Patriotic Song by the 19th-century Russian composer Mikhail Glinka.

But the lack of words to the Glinka tune provoked complaints last summer from the Spartak Moscow football team that it had nothing suitable to belt out before matches.

That attitude deserves attention and respect, as does the attitude of any citizen of Russa, the ex-president is no exception

President Vladimir Putin

The old Soviet anthem, by contrast, is a stirring, singable melody.

It was written during the dark days of World War II, as Red Army troops began to turn the tables on the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front.

Many older Russians associate the anthem more with the victory over Hitler than with Communist oppression.

Others associate it with Soviet-era sports victories and other achievements.

Putin unmoved

But ex-president Yeltsin disagreed.

"My only association with the old anthem is party congresses and conferences that consolidated the power of the party's bureaucrats," he said.

The president of a country should not blindly follow the mood of the people

Boris Yeltsin

Mr Yeltsin told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that he was "categorically" against its revival, despite opinion polls showing that many Russians favoured this.

"The president of a country should not blindly follow the mood of the people," he said. "On the contrary, it is up to him to actively influence it".

However a politician who visited Mr Putin on Thursday said he had not been influenced by Mr Yeltsin's words, although he had paid attention to them.

He quoted Mr Putin as saying: "That attitude deserves attention and respect, as does the attitude of any citizen of Russa, the ex-president is no exception,".