On Yeltsin's recent health problems
MOSCOW, March 15 (AFP) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin spent
Sunday at an official residence outside Moscow recuperating from his
latest bout of ill health, but the Kremlin insisted he would be back
at work Monday.
Asked if Yeltsin would return to his Kremlin desk Monday, a
presidential spokesman said "yes," adding that Yeltsin's "agenda for
this week remains in place."
However, the official refused to issue a health bulletin on the
Russian leader, who on Friday abruptly cancelled all engagements
after suffering acute laryngitis and voice loss.
Yeltsin spent Saturday quietly celebrating his wife Naina's 66th
birthday with close family members, aides said.
Chief Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said then "the
president's schedule for next week remains unchanged, but of course
everything depends on how he feels on Saturday and Sunday," an exact
repeat of comments made the previous day.
Senior Russian officials met in the Kremlin over the weekend to
prepare Yeltsin's meetings with leaders from former Soviet
republics, who are due to gather in Moscow for a two-day summit
starting Thursday.
Yeltsin is also to meet leaders of a four-way customs union
grouping Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, on the eve of
the 12-nation Commonwealth of Independent States summit.
The latest bout of ill-health marks the second time Yeltsin, 67,
has suffered a respiratory tract infection in four months, having
been laid low for five weeks last December with an acute chest
infection.
Yeltsin's latest health scare came just days after he insisted
that doctors had given him a clean bill of health, and declared the
whole saga of his health problems was now a "closed book."
Speculation over the president's health has remained rife due to
repeated bouts of illness in recent years, which have prompted
opponents to question his fitness to govern.
However, analysts have played down the latest health scare,
stressing that Yeltsin was no longer regarded as the sole guarantor
of stability in Russia.
The Russian leader, who has a history of heart problems,
underwent multiple coronary bypass surgery in November 1996 after a
year of scares over successive heart attacks -- including one on the
eve of his reelection in July 1996 -- which the Kremlin hushed up.
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