Nothing had quite prepared me for the sheer physical size of Boris Yeltsin, as I joined his impromptu walkabout in the city of Perm during his re-election campaign 11 years ago.

I had often seen the Russian leader at press conferences, and every day his cortãge of black limousines raced beneath my apartment balcony on the way to the Kremlin.

Up close, though, he was bigger and more imposing. His white quiff towered above the grey-suited Kremlin entourage. He moved slowly and exuded the confidence of a professional politician who knows his people and how to work a crowd.

We were in a large open square in the Urals town, once infamous for its gulags but now an unthreatening backwater struggling to cope with the realities of the market economy.

Suddenly the handshakes and-cheers were disrupted by the small round figure of a grumpy babushka, the ubiquitous Russian granny.

This one harangued the Kremlin leader to his face for failing to pay her pension on time and turning her world upside down. She spoke for many Russians, as she listed her woes and wagged a disapproving finger at the head of state.

Russian politicians are notoriously poor at dealing with truculent members of the public and Kremlin bodyguards are trained to get rid of troublemakers, if necessary by force.

Yeltsin had long ago lost the sympathy of his people. They had been won over by his anti-establishment charm during the final days of communism and his courage during the failed coup of 1991 when soldiers defected to his side and he famously made a speech from the turret of a tank.

But by 1996, Yeltsin was damaged goods. His handling of the economy had impoverished the nation and enriched a tiny group of oligarchs. His invasion of Chechnya had led to the loss of thousands of lives. His drunken behaviour, at Shannon airport and at a ceremony in Berlin, had brought shame to his office. His opinion poll ratings were right down.

All eyes now turned to the white-haired leader to see how he would cope with a simple challenge from an ordinary citizen. He took the granny by the hand and told her to calm down. The woman’s anger subsided, then turned to tears. Yeltsin embraced her in a customary bear hug.

An aide was summoned to take down her complaint and make sure that she went away with a generous presidential gift. I was told she was given the keys to a new shiny Lada. It was a trick he was to repeat again on the campaign trail.

The performance was vintage Yeltsin and nobody in the crowd that day would have voted for anyone other than him. His aides had advised him to postpone the elections and simply stay in the Kremlin for as long as he wanted, just as his predecessors had done. Even Western diplomats feared that the communists would return to power through the ballot box.

Instead Yeltsin crisscrossed Russia’s vast territory, giving speeches, working crowds and memorably dancing the twist beside two girls in mini-skirts on a stage at Rostov-on-Don. Many other babushkas were won over.

His earnest but dull Communist Party opponent, Gennadi Zyuganov, never stood a chance.

Yeltsin was duly reelected. But the campaign had taken its toll on his health and he was barely able to get through his own inauguration. He endured bypass surgery and further bouts in hospital. There were persistent rumours that he was still drinking heavily.

The day-to-day running of Russia fell into the hands of his family and cronies before he took the country by surprise and bowed out a year early, toasting Russia’s future with a glass of champagne, on New Year’s Eve, 1999.

He largely disappeared from view during his retirement. Those of us who met him while he was still in office will never forget the experience.

Richard Beeston was Moscow correspondent for The Times from 1994 to 1998

Triumph on a tank, disaster on a runway

August 1991 Defeats coup by Communist Party hardliners against Mikhail Gorbachev. Stands on tank outside Russian Parliament to give rousing speech

August 1994 Drunkenly grabs baton from German military bandmaster and directs orchestra at ceremony marking withdrawal of Russian troops from Berlin

September 1994 Heavy drinking blamed for his failure to emerge from his aircraft at Shannon airport, right, where he was due to meet Albert Reynolds, the Irish Prime Minister

December 1994 Orders disastrous invasion of Chechnya by Russian forces; tens of thousands killed

June 1996 Despite poor health, runs energetic re-election campaign. Dances the twist beside mini-skirted girls on stage at Rostov-on-Don

November 1996 Suffers heart attack and later undergoes quintuple bypass surgery. Health problems plague rest of his time in office

September 1998 Comes to Bill Clinton’s rescue at height of Monica Lewinsky scandal during Kremlin press conference

December 1999 Makes unexpected resignation announcement on New Year Eve, 1999, ending with a toast to Russia

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