MOSCOW -- A monument to Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin, will be unveiled in his native city of Yekaterinburg next year, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
The renowned Russian sculptor Georgy Frangulian, who is designing the monument, told RFE/RL that it will be a 10-meter structure of white marble. The monument will be placed on Yekaterinburg's Yeltsin Avenue on February 1.
Aleksandr Drozdov, who is executive director of the First Russian President's Fund, told RFE/RL that the planned monument is part of a broader program to establish a center in Yekaterinburg named after Yeltsin.
Drozdov said he hopes that Russia's second and third presidents, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, will attend the unveiling of the monument on what would have been Yeltsin's 80th birthday.
Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1991 with 57 percent of the vote, becoming Russia's first popularly elected president. He was reelected in 1996.
His popularity declined in the late 1990s after a succession of economic and political crises, and he announced his resignation in December 1999.
Yeltsin died of heart failure on April 23, 2007.
The renowned Russian sculptor Georgy Frangulian, who is designing the monument, told RFE/RL that it will be a 10-meter structure of white marble. The monument will be placed on Yekaterinburg's Yeltsin Avenue on February 1.
Aleksandr Drozdov, who is executive director of the First Russian President's Fund, told RFE/RL that the planned monument is part of a broader program to establish a center in Yekaterinburg named after Yeltsin.
Drozdov said he hopes that Russia's second and third presidents, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, will attend the unveiling of the monument on what would have been Yeltsin's 80th birthday.
Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1991 with 57 percent of the vote, becoming Russia's first popularly elected president. He was reelected in 1996.
His popularity declined in the late 1990s after a succession of economic and political crises, and he announced his resignation in December 1999.
Yeltsin died of heart failure on April 23, 2007.