Exactly. That was the point. Yeltsin understood the big picture:

For a democratic experiment to work, that first democratically elected leader must move aside and turn over power to the next democratically elected leader, following the term limits imposed by the new democratic constitution (created in Russia in 1993). Yeltsin did just that. Though Boris Yeltsin will never be confused with George Washington, his parting action was similarly profound and critical—and many a leader has been unwilling to do what Yeltsin did, especially in a country where the norm has been usurpation of power.

Alas, he ended his resignation speech by asking for forgiveness that “what seemed simple to us turned out to be so tormentingly difficult.” He apologized “for not justifying some hopes of those people who believed that at one stroke, in one spurt, we could leap from the gray, stagnant, totalitarian past into the light, rich, civilized future.”

With this concluding gesture, the tragic Yeltsin of the latter 1990s reverted to the heroic Yeltsin of earlier times. President Boris Yeltsin’s final hour may have been his finest hour.

Of course, Russia today has a lot of work to do before it becomes a true democracy. Boris Yeltsin, however, did his part. He can rest in peace, having exorcised more than his share of demons from the Bolshevik horror house.