So, apparently this bizarre incident took place.
( http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-co...n-drunk-in-his-underwear-hailing-a-cab-021553 , http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-09-23/yeltsin-drunk-near-naked-outside-white-house/1438342 , http://historybuff.com/drunk-pantsl...ab-from-white-house-to-get-pizza-meZBDBYgA9YK )
A grim but fairly simple "what if" is that Yeltsin loses his footing and hits his head forcefully on the pavement or sidewalk before aides or the secret service can reach him.
Now you have the Russian president killed in an extremely embarrassing manner in the capital of the United States. Besides being a PR disaster for both countries there's the fact that it's only two years after the Russian Constitutional Crisis and (as far as I can tell) Yeltsin's successor is apparently not very well-liked.
[Clinton] relayed how Boris Yeltsin's late-night drinking during a visit to Washington in 1995 nearly created an international incident. The Russian president was staying at Blair House, the government guest quarters. Late at night, Clinton told Branch, Secret Service agents found Yeltsin clad only in his underwear, standing alone on Pennsylvania Avenue and trying to hail a cab. He wanted a pizza, he told them, his words slurring.
The next night, Yeltsin eluded security forces again when he climbed down back stairs to the Blair House basement. A building guard took Yeltsin for a drunken intruder until Russian and U.S. agents arrived on the scene and rescued him.
( http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-co...n-drunk-in-his-underwear-hailing-a-cab-021553 , http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-09-23/yeltsin-drunk-near-naked-outside-white-house/1438342 , http://historybuff.com/drunk-pantsl...ab-from-white-house-to-get-pizza-meZBDBYgA9YK )
A grim but fairly simple "what if" is that Yeltsin loses his footing and hits his head forcefully on the pavement or sidewalk before aides or the secret service can reach him.
Now you have the Russian president killed in an extremely embarrassing manner in the capital of the United States. Besides being a PR disaster for both countries there's the fact that it's only two years after the Russian Constitutional Crisis and (as far as I can tell) Yeltsin's successor is apparently not very well-liked.