Somewhat related to this Q, I found that Yeltsin had been challenged by Zyuganov to a televised debate in 1996. I wasn't able to find out if Yeltsin ever took on that challenge. So, did he?
Or is essentially the case that no incumbent of the Russian presidency (who stood for re-election) ever took on [televised] televised debates with his opponents? (Medvedev didn't stand for re-election [insofar].)
No, it doesn't seem so. On Zyuganov's invitation in particular, Klebnikov's Godfather of the Kremlin: Life and Times of Boris Berezovsky states that "Yeltsin immediately rejected [Zyuganov's offer of a debate], fearing a spontaneous debate on Russia's decline". He cites a Moscow Times article of May 12th, 1996, which reads:
On Friday, the Communist Party's press service disseminated a letter sent from Zyuganov to Yeltsin, dated Wednesday, in which the Communist leader called on the president to meet on live television for an "open discussion, without aides and consultants."
Zyuganov proposed that each candidate would give his views "on the main problems of the country, the paths of its development, the means of bringing Russia out of its current dangerous condition." Such a meeting, wrote Zyuganov, would help citizens to "make their choice independently in this decisive moment."
Yeltsin, however, has apparently rejected Zyuganov's invitation. Izvestia, in its Sunday edition, quoted the president as answering: "I was a communist for 30 years and heard so much of that demagogy that today, given my democratic world view, I can no longer endure that demagogy."
It does not appear that Yeltsin took part in any formal debates with any other candidates.
