Yeltsin "sleeps through" Ireland

On 30 September 1994, President Boris Yeltsin was flying back to Russia from the United States—where he had traveled to address the UN General Assembly in New York City—when his plane headed to Shannon, Ireland, for a scheduled visit of state. Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Albert Reynolds, who had cut short his own official visit to Australia to make time for the Russian president, was waiting for him on the tarmac in the company of several Irish ministers and Russia’s ambassador to Ireland, Nikolai Kozyrev. The plan was to greet Yeltsin, then proceed to a formal reception at Dromoland Castle. Alas, it was not to be. After circling Shannon for an hour, Yeltsin’s plane finally landed—but Yeltsin himself was nowhere to be seen. His personal bodyguard, Alexander Korzhakov, informed Kozyrev that Yeltsin was “very tired” and would not make it out, a message Kozyrev was then forced to convey to Reynolds and his entourage. Reynolds, bewildered, agreed to speak with Russia’s Vice Premier, Oleg Soskovets, but proposed to board the plane to at least shake Yeltsin’s hand. His offer was rebuffed, and Yeltsin never did emerge. Ultimately, Reynolds and Soskovets met briefly in the airport’s VIP Delta lounge, after which the Russians started for home. The fallout from this episode was swift and merciless. Regarded both at home and abroad as embarrassing and ridiculous, the incident raised questions about Yeltsin’s rumored alcoholism, his general health, and, most importantly, his fitness to rule. The Russian president’s own explanation, slurred to the TV reporters who turned up to confront him when he landed in Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport, was characteristically blunt. “I’ll be honest,” he said, “I just overslept. I hadn’t slept that much during the eighteen hours in flight, and my security detail didn’t let the people through who were, uh, supposed to wake me up. Of course, I’ll get to the bottom of this. I’ll make them pay.” Apparently plunged in deep slumber, Yeltsin had simply “slept through Ireland [prospal Irlandiiu],” in the sarcastic assessment of Russian commentators.