Ailing Yeltsin Returns Home
With aides saying Boris Yeltsin was suffering from a cold, the Russian president was ordered by his doctors to cut short a trip to Central Asia Monday, the Interfax news agency reported.
The 67-year-old leader, who has a long history of health problems, was returning to Moscow. CBS News Correspondent Richard Threlkeld reports that while aides denied Yeltsin was seriously ill, similar assurances in the past have been misplaced.
Reuters was reporting Monday that Yeltsin was suffering from bronchitis, an inflammation of the membranes in the lungs, and was being treated with antibiotics.
The announcement that Yeltsin would be returning to Moscow came shortly after he arrived in Almaty, Kazakstan's main city, from neighboring Uzbekistan.
Yeltsin's spokesman Dmitry Yakushkin, said doctors insisted on the president's return, Interfax reported. It gave no other details.
Yeltsin appeared stiff upon arriving in Uzbekistan on Sunday. He stumbled after his plane landed and canceled his public appearances. Monday, Yeltsin turned up more than an hour late for talks with Uzbek officials and abruptly cut short a scheduled news conference.
Aides said Yeltsin was suffering from a cold and had a bad flight from Moscow. The Russian leader had multiple heart bypass surgery two years ago, but he insists he has no major health problems and will serve out his remaining two years in office.
Yeltsin has spent most of the last two months out of the Kremlin, holding meetings in his country home outside Moscow. The trip to Central Asia was his first outside of Russia since May, when he went to Britain for the Group of Seven summit of industrialized countries.
Yeltsin had been scheduled to hold talks in Kazakstan Monday and Tuesday. The Kazak presidential press service said he would compress his entire agenda into one day and fly back to Moscow Monday night.
Yeltsin had to be supported by Uzbek President Islam Karimov when he arrived Sunday. He met with Karimov later in the day and the two signed a cooperation agreement.
Yeltsin's doctor, Sergei Mironov, had said earlier that the president was feeling better, the Interfax news agency reported.
However, Yeltsin showed up one hour late for talks Monday between Russian and Uzbek officials, catching only the last 20 minutes. He also cut short his scheduled 20-minute news conference to just a few minutes.
He and Karimov made brief statements and walked away without taking questions. Yeltsin walked unaided, but was closely flanked by bodyguards.
"We had to slightly change the program because of the tight schedule," spokesman Yakushkin told reporters, refusing to give further details.
Yeltsin's talks in Uzbekistan and Kazakstan focused on economic issues as well as concerns about fighting in Afghanistan. The former Soviet republics in Central Asia fear an influx of drugs, weapons and refugees s well as a possible spillover of fighting from Afghanistan.