THE Russian Foreign Minister Mr Andrei Kozyrev, who submitted his resignation to President Yeltsin yesterday, built bridges with the west, but critics at home accused him of letting Russia be humiliated.
Mr Kozyrev (44), a career diplomat and the longest serving cabinet minister, had been in office since October 1990.
Mr Kozyrev presided over a brief euphoric period of good ties with the west immediately after the Soviet Union collapsed.
His eagerness to co operate with the west prompted some of the Russian media to call him "Mr Yes" an ironic twist of the title of "Mr No" which the west gave the long standing Soviet foreign minister. Mr Andre Gromyo, in the Cold War era.
Foreign policy became more assertive after nationalist gains in a 1993 parliamentary election, but Mr Kozyrev failed to satisfy nationalist and communist demands for a tougher line.
The hardline majority in the lower house of parliament repeatedly accused him of selling out to the west and failing to get Moscow's voice heard over former Yugoslavia.
On the other side, many liberals lost respect for him after he abandoned the reformist Russia's Choice party early in 1995.
He disagreed with its opposition to the use of force against separatists in the Chechnya region and justified Russian military tactics there despite high loss of life. Parliament then demanded Mr Kozyrev's dismissal.
Last October, Mr Yeltsin made his own dissatisfaction clear. He said he intended to replace Mr Kozyrev but then changed his mind, leaving him in a virtually untenable position.
Mr Kozyrev hit back by saying Russia remained a force in international diplomacy even if its views were not always heeded in peace moves over former Yugoslavia.
Mr Kozyrev refused to resign but gave himself a face saving way out if the going got too tough by running in the December 17th election to the State Duma (lower chamber).
He won a seat in the Arctic region of Murmansk, giving him the option of taking up his seat in parliament or battling on as foreign minister.
Andrei Vladimirovich Kozyrev was born in Brussels on March 27th, 1951, the son of a diplomat. He joined the Soviet foreign ministry in 1974 but left it to become Russian Foreign Minister in October 1990.
A fluent English speaker, Mr Kozyrev quickly asserted himself. In December 1992 he stunned and, angered the world at a major international gathering in Stockholm by first making a bellicose Cold War speech and then retracting it.
He later said it had been a shock tactic to warn of political instability as Russia moved towards a market economy.
He backed Mr Yeltsin's drive for major cuts in strategic weapons and helped to push Russia closer to the UN, the International Monetary Fund and the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialised nations.
But conservatives accused him of trying to turn Russia into a US satellite. Criticism mounted, leaving him with almost no political allies.