Primakov Steps In For Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin, looking more isolated than ever, underwent a second day of sanatorium treatment for exhaustion on Wednesday, and one of his top aides said the president no longer had day-to-day control of Russia.
The Kremlin said the 67-year-old leader, who has a history of poor health and had heart bypass surgery two years ago, was still at the Barvikha Medical Center west of Moscow and plans for a holiday to recuperate further had yet to be finalized.
"The government is now fully responsible for the economy," Deputy Kremlin Chief of Staff Oleg Sysuyev said in an interview published in the daily newspaper Sevodnya on Wednesday.
"The most important task for the president is to turn over stable power to his successor. He no longer has the right to be distracted by day-to-day issues."
He said Yeltsin would serve out his elected term to mid-2000 overseeing constitutional reform in the world's largest country.
Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov was expected to assume control of daily affairs in Russia's government.
At a European Union conference in Vienna Tuesday, Primakov was already filling in for the ailing president, reports CBS Correspondent Richard Threlkeld..
Tuesday, Yeltsin was moved to a sanatorium outside Moscow for an unspecified period of medical treatment. He's not thought to be seriously ill, but doctors were apparently so concerned about his mental condition that they advised against the trip to Vienna. They fear a repeat of the erratic behavior he displayed on his last foreign trip to Uzbekistan earlier this month.
Keeping Yeltsin in seclusion while Primakov governs Russia until the president's term expires makes a certain amount of sense. A Yeltsin resignation now, in the middle of Russia's economic crisis, would plunge the country into immediate presidential elections, and perhaps into political chaos.
Better to keep an incapacitated president, the reasoning goes, at least until the economy's back on its feet and the country's prepared to decide on a successor.
The trouble with that scenario is that Primakov, who is older than Yeltsin, isn't all that healthy, either. And the economy isn't going to improve anytime soon.
Ominously enough, it is possible that Russia can't afford to wait for Yeltsin to go.
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