In 1996, the Russian president Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was on his last legs; his extensive privatization campaign had left both the Russian economy and people in a state of disarray, homelessness and poverty running rampant. Yeltsin's health saw a dramatic decline in the mid-1990's, falling victim to a number of heart attacks by early 1996. All of these coincided with a sharp decrease in popular opinion, as well as the presidential election of 1996.