Boris Yeltsin, the first democratically elected president in Russian history, died yesterday of heart failure, ending a spectacular political career that spanned the end of the cold war, the collapse of the Soviet empire, and a decade of chaos and liberty in Russia, halted and reversed by his successor, Vladimir Putin.

The burly Siberian with the shock of white hair clambered atop tanks on the streets of Moscow to face down KGB plotters, turned the same tanks on the Russian parliament, launched a disastrous war in Chechnya, won a second term in a flawed election and presided over Russia's financial meltdown in 1998. He maintained his capacity to surprise, using the last day of the millennium in 1999 to stand down suddenly and hand power to Mr Putin.

In his 10 years at the Kremlin, Mr Yeltsin was hailed as a hero and a villain, at times a buffoon, at others a force of nature. He died yesterday in a Moscow hospital more than seven years after being the first Russian leader to give up power voluntarily.

"A tragic fate," said his peer and rival, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader. "On [his] shoulders rest major events for the good of the country and serious mistakes."

Tony Blair said: "He was a remarkable man who saw the need for democratic and economic reform and, in defending it, he played a vital role at a crucial time in Russia's history."

Mr Yeltsin's former prime minister, Viktor Chernomyrdin, said: "The democratic and economic foundations he laid are irreversible. There is no way back. This was his main service to Russia."

Mr Yeltsin's primary historical achievement, perhaps, was to make irreversible the end of communism in Russia. In achieving that, however, he encouraged or facilitated the crony robber capitalism that conferred fabulous wealth on a handful of unscrupulous oligarchs while pauperising the vast majority of the country.

His "shock therapy" economic reforms, masterminded by Anatoly Chubais and supported by Washington in the early 90s, were radical, causing a collapse in living standards from which Russians are only beginning to recover under the authoritarian regime of Mr Putin.

Mr Yeltsin's finest hour came in the summer of 1991 when Soviet reactionaries led by KGB plotters kidnapped Mr Gorbachev in an abortive coup aimed at salvaging the Soviet Union. Mr Yeltsin rallied resistance on the streets of Moscow, defeated the coup plotters, but then turned on the Soviet reformist to bury both the Soviet Union and Mr Gorbachev's career.

By then, Mr Yeltsin had already used his popularity to become the first directly elected president of Russia, then exploiting the democratic legitimacy conferred by that office to undermine Mr Gorbachev. On Christmas day that year, Mr Gorbachev resigned, handing victory to Mr Yeltsin who engineered the break-up of the Soviet Union and its transformation into 15 separate countries.

President Putin phoned Mr Yeltsin's widow, Naina, yesterday to voice his condolences. But Mr Putin, who owes his career to Mr Yeltsin, represents the opposite of everything he embodied, and is known to be critical of the Yeltsin years.

Russia's heavily controlled TV channels paid glowing tribute to Mr Yeltsin, praising him as a great man. They showed archive footage of his early career as a communist party boss in Sverdlovsk, and of his rapid rise within the Politburo. There was no mention of his disastrous decision to go to war in Chechnya in 1994.

Russia's third channel, however, did screen embarrassing footage of a bear-like Mr Yeltsin dancing on stage during his re-election campaign in June 1996, as well as his slurring valedictory speech as president in December 1999.

But last night, international leaders praised him. George Bush called him "a historic figure who served his country during a period of momentous change".

The EU and the Nato alliance hailed Mr Yeltsin as a healer of the cold war divide who opened up Russia to the rest of Europe. "As president, he had enormous challenges and difficult mandates, but he certainly brought east and west closer together," said Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European commission.

Former prime minister John Major told the BBC: "He could be moody and introspective, but once he was a friend, he was a friend for life. I think his tremendous work in terms of instilling democracy is what will stand out when people have forgotten the economic difficulties, and forgotten the miscellaneous matters about as whether he drank too much."

In a statement, Lady Thatcher described Mr Yeltsin as a "patriot and liberator". Without him, she said, "Russia would have remained in the grip of communism".

German chancellor Angela Merkel said: "Boris Yeltsin was a large personality in Russian and international politics, a courageous fighter for democracy."

Spirited diplomacy

August 1991

At the height of the coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, the then foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, found Mr Yeltsin passed out on the carpet with an empty vodka bottle beside him, not phoning round world leaders

August 1994

On a visit to Germany he jumped on to the stage in the middle of a champagne lunch, started to conduct the band and treated his audience to singing and dancing, as well as blowing kisses at them, visibly overcome with drink and nostalgia for the Russian folk tune the brass band were playing

September 1994

Mr Yeltsin was due to meet the Irish premier, Albert Reynolds, but never made it off the plane. The Irish leadership waiting patiently at the end of the red carpet at Shannon airport was informed by Yeltsin's advisers that he was "unwell". Journalists speculated that Mr Yeltsin was too drunk

December 1997

Whilst visiting Sweden Mr Yeltsin stunned everyone by announcing that he was cutting Russia's nuclear arsenal by a third; his press secretary later assured journalists it was not the case

February 1998

During a visit to Pope John Paul II, Mr Yeltsin offended his hosts by failing to salute the Italian flag, walking straight past it despite attempts by his embarrassed aides to stop him so that he could make a bow. He appeared confused and vague during the visit and had to be propped up by aides several times. He finished his state visit by declaring during a state banquet his "boundless love for Rome, Italy and Italian women"

Isabelle Chevallot