Naina Yeltsina

Who is Naina Yeltsina?

Naina Iosifovna Yeltsina is the widow of the first President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin.

Naina Yeltsina was born in the Orenburg Oblast in 1932. After graduating from the construction faculty at the Ural Polytechnic Institute in Sverdlovsk in 1955, she worked with various projects at the Sverdlovsk Institute. In 1956, she married Boris Yeltsin, whom she met at the institute, and lives, since 1985, in Moscow. They have two daughters, Yelena and Tatyana, born in 1957 and 1960, respectively.

Naina Yeltsina was rarely seen in public. She accompanied her husband on some of his foreign visits, including 1997 visits to Sweden, Finland, and a 1999 visit to China. As a rule, Naina Yeltsina never interfered in her husband's political work. However, in the 1996 election campaign, she met with voters and gave interviews to the media. A major public appearance was the state funeral of her late husband in Moscow in April 2007.