Burial to be held today Russia's former President Boris Yeltsin was a hero for dismantling the Soviet Union but the democracy he bequeathed was dangerously fragile, Russian newspapers said yesterday.

Tributes to the first President of independent Russia, who died from heart failure on Monday aged 76, focused on his contradictions: a hero for dismantling the Soviet Union but a villain for allowing the new Russia to sink into chaos.

"The man who gave people new life and new opportunities to pursue their dreams also - and this was important for him - removed fear from peoples' hearts," said a commentary in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily.

"People saw their difficulties in adapting to a new way of life as the blunders of the country's leader. And as people no longer had fear, the head of state was ostracised by just about everyone."

Mr Yeltsin, who ended communist rule in Russia but ushered in a period of market reform so brutal that many lost their savings to his economic "shock therapy", will be buried today.

Photographs of Mr Yeltsin filled the front page of almost every major newspaper. They showed him looking statesmanlike and avoided the images of Yeltsin, ailing and out of touch, that many Russians associate with him.

That contrasted with coverage in the Western press. Though equally crediting him with being a pivotal figure at a crucial moment in Russian history, many British newspapers for example carried photographs highlighting the many international gaffes - sometimes influenced by drink - that he made during his colourful career in the Kremlin.

Many of the Russian tributes to Mr Yeltsin viewed him through the prism of seven years under Vladimir Putin - the successor handpicked by Mr Yeltsin who, critics allege, has rolled back many of the democratic reforms his patron introduced.

"Boris Yeltsin said that he was leaving Russia to 'a new generation of politicians', under whom the country 'will never go back to the past'. But over seven years of his presidency Vladimir Putin has proved that a return to the past is possible," said the Kommersant newspaper.

"Many members of the opposition believe that the 'appointment' of Vladimir Putin as successor was the biggest mistake of the first president of Russia. But Boris Yeltsin himself never admitted that. At least publicly."

There was also acknowledgement of the economic upheaval under Mr Yeltsin, his disastrous campaign against Chechen rebels and his reported weakness for drink.

"The malevolence of fate: everything he initiated turned out the opposite way round. He wanted to make many rich but only enriched a few," said the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.

Alluding to Mr Yeltsin's penchant for alcohol, the paper said: "He had one personal weakness, which is understandable and forgivable for Russia. And it wasn't this weakness that ruined his authority but the war [in Chechnya] and privatisation."

However, most commentaries agreed that for all his shortcomings, the Russia Mr Yeltsin left behind was very different from the Communist state he inherited.

"He was President of Russia for eight and a half years and not once... did he stifle the freedom of the press. Because of that we can now publish what we think," said Moskovsky Komsomolets.

"The first President of Russia, Boris Nikolayevich will go down in history as the politician who put the country back on the path of civilised development," said the Vedomosti newspaper.

Factbox: What they said about Yeltsin

Following is a selection of reactions to the death on Monday of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who presided over the demise of the Soviet Union and Russia's transition to a free market:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin, the successor Mr Yeltsin anointed, who has rowed back many of his liberalising reforms:

"He was the first Russian President. With this title he has forever entered the history of the country and the whole world.

"A man passed away, thanks to whom a whole new epoch was born. A new democratic Russia was born, a free state open to the world. A state in which power truly belongs to the people."

• Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, architect of Perestroika reforms who helped Mr Yeltsin to a position of power, then saw him dissolve the Soviet Union and take over the Kremlin:

"I express the very deepest condolences to the family of the deceased on whose shoulders rest major events for the good of the country and serious mistakes. A tragic fate."

• Bill Clinton, who met Mr Yeltsin more than 15 times as US President at the warmest period in post-Cold War east-west relations:

"He risked his life to prevent a coup, then pushed Russia forward through economic hardship and political turmoil to partnerships with Cold War adversaries and membership in the G8.

"Fate gave him a tough time in which to govern, but history will be kind to him because he was courageous and steadfast on the big issues - peace, freedom, and progress."

• German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who negotiated the withdrawal of Russian troops from former Communist East Germany with Mr Yeltsin:

"I will never forget the way in which he presided over the withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany. For this the Germans and I will be eternally grateful."

• John Major, British Prime Minister during much of Mr Yeltsin's tenure:

"When he stood on a tank and talked of democracy and the future of Russia, there was a man of immense courage and immense conviction."

• Exiled Russian multi-millionaire Boris Berezovsky, one of the "Oligarchs" who benefited from the Sell-Off Programme:

"Russia has lost a brilliant reformer. No one has done as much for Russia as Yeltsin did. He was a unique person and absolutely Russian in his soul, in his impulsiveness and in his intellect."