Bella Akhmadulina

From an LA Times posting, this pictures captures something uniquely Russian. No US president would ever think of kissing a woman's hand, no US poet would ever be so honored and mean so much to her people, and no US president, even if there were one named Boris, would ever embody what Yelstin did.

Even another Russian president does not match Boris Yeltsin.

Ms. Akhmadulina came to prominence during the post-Stalin thaw, when a loosening of censorship led to a flowering of the arts. Along with the poets Yevgeny Yevtushenko (her first husband) and Andrei Voznesensky, she became one of the bold new voices in contemporary Russian literature, attracting ecstatic audiences of thousands to readings at concert halls and stadiums.