Twenty-nine years ago today, on August 9, 1996 (June 25, 1996 lunar calendar), President Yeltsin was sworn in. On August 9, 1996, Russian President Yeltsin was sworn in, thus beginning his second term as president. Yeltsin was re-elected as president of Russia after two rounds of voting on June 16 and July 3. The head of the Russian government, members of the upper and lower houses of the Russian parliament and more than 3,000 people from all walks of life attended Yeltsin's swearing-in ceremony. The heads of state of the Commonwealth of Independent States were invited to attend the ceremony. Li Fenglin, my ambassador to Russia, attended the inauguration ceremony on behalf of the Chinese government. The envoys of other countries in Russia also attended the ceremony. Boris Nikolayevitch Yeltsin (1931.2.1 - 2007.4.23) was born on February 1, 1931 in an ordinary peasant family in Butka village, Dalitsky district, Sverdlovsk region, Russian Federation. In 1955 he graduated from the Department of Architecture of the Ural Kirov Institute of Technology. In 1961 he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1968 he served as Minister of Construction of the Sverdlovsk region, and later was promoted to First Secretary of the State Party Committee and Minister of Construction of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1981 he was elected as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1985 he served as First Secretary of the Moscow Municipal Party Committee and in February 1986 he became an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In May 1990 he was elected Chairperson of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation. In On June 12, 1991, the Russian presidential election was held, and Yeltsin became the first president of the Russian Federation with 57.3% of the votes. On December 7, Yeltsin announced the establishment of the "Commonwealth of Independent States" composed of the three Slavic countries after secret talks with Ukrainian President Kravchuk and Belarusian leader Shushkevich in Brest City. On December 21, the heads of the 11 republics of the former Soviet Union issued the "Almaty Declaration", which disintegrated the Soviet Union.