Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a day of mourning on Wednesday following the death this afternoon of former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin.
Mr Yeltsin, who had a history of heart ailments, died in hospital of heart failure. He was 76.
The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has said he was greatly saddened by Mr Yeltsin's death.
Of Mr Yetsin, Mr Ahern, said he displayed courageous leadership and political vision in charting the way forward for his country following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Mr Yeltsin became Russia's first democratically elected president after Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as Soviet leader in December 1991.
He won international acclaim as a defender of democracy when in August 1991 he mounted a tank in Moscow, rallying the people against an attempt to overthrow Mr Gorbachev's era of glasnost and perestroika.
The former leader had a quintuple heart bypass operation following his re-election in 1996.
He announced his retirement on the last day of the 20th century, handing over to the secret service chief Vladimir Putin.
Mr Yeltsin technically visited this country during his presidency when he made a stopover at Shannon Airport in 1994 on the way back from a US visit.
However, he made world headlines when he failed to get off the plane and greet a delegation led by Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
An aide claimed he was merely exhausted, not drunk, after his long journey.
Mr Yeltsin's later reaction was: 'It just happened -- what can one do?'
OTHER MEMORABLE QUOTES BY BORIS YELTSIN
'Let's not talk about communism. Communism was just an idea, just pie in the sky.'
1989, on a visit to the United States
'(The war) may have been one of my mistakes.'
On the Chechen war he began in 1994
'A man must live like a great bright flame and burn as brightly as he can. In the end he burns out. But that is better than a mean little flame.'
1990, talking to a reporter from The Times newspaper
'We are stuck half-way, having left the old shore; we keep floundering in a stream of problems which engulf us and prevent us from reaching a new shore.'
1997 state of the nation address, about painful transition from a planned to a capitalist economy
'The living standards of most of the Russian citizens, already low, are still sinking.'
'The eastward expansion of NATO is a mistake and a serious one at that. Nevertheless, in order to minimise the negative consequences for Russia, we decided to sign an agreement with NATO.'
On NATO enlargement, at same news conference
