State Papers: Russian president Boris Yeltsin kept taoiseach waiting at Shannon due to 'unfortunate mishap'

Taoiseach Albert Reynolds and Government officials wait to meet Russian President Boris Yeltsin at Shannon Airport in 1994. Picture: Press 22

Irish officials believed the Russian ambassador to Ireland, Nikolai Kozyrev, was “exquisitely embarrassed” by the failure of his president, Boris Yeltsin, to emerge from a plane to meet the taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, during a planned stopover at Shannon Airport 30 years ago.

Newly-released State papers by the National Archives about the infamous incident on September 30, 1994, show Mr Yeltsin subsequently wrote to Mr Reynolds to express regret their meeting did not go ahead due to “an unfortunate mishap".