World

Yeltsin Checks Into Sanatorium

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 26, 1998 / 9:36 AM EST / CBS

Boris Yeltsin checked into a sanatorium Tuesday, a day after doctors ordered him to cancel yet another foreign trip because of high blood pressure and extreme fatigue.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Yakushkin told reporters the 67-year-old leader's stay at the Barvikha sanatorium would depend on the "course of curative treatments" prescribed.
Russian newspapers have speculated that Yeltsin is afflicted with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease, but their reports are based simply on his public appearances, not on medical examinations.

Yeltsin's transfer to Barvikha (a day after doctors ordered him to cancel a trip to Austria for a summit with the European Union and take a holiday) did little to inspire confidence in his ability to run Russia and ease its severe economic crisis.

Before leaving his Gorky-9 residence for Barvikha, Yeltsin met Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, who is taking the president's place in Vienna, and told him to give EU leaders a briefing on the government's long-awaited anti-crisis plan.

Television pictures with no sound track showed Yeltsin seated and chatting with Primakov, whose stature is growing as inexorably as Yeltsin's star is waning.

Yeltsin, who was wearing a chunky sweater, looked somewhat detached and smiled little.

Yakushkin said the Kremlin chief told Primakov, a former foreign minister, "to convey to our European partners a sense of confidence in relation to Moscow's economic policy."

EU officials in Austria, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said new cash for Russia was unlikely to be forthcoming until Russia implements tough reforms, a line the International Monetary Fund is also taking.

The Kremlin said on Monday doctors had told the Yeltsin not to travel, just two weeks after he cut short a visit to Central Asia because of bronchitis.

Barvikha sanatorium is a well-equipped medical center where Yeltsin has recovered from past ailments and is not far from Gorky-9.

It was not clear what kind of treatment Yeltsin would receive, nor when and where he would start his holiday.

Under pressure to quit, the Russian president faces a growing battle to prove he still has a grip on power after canceling the trip.

The opposition Communist Party and even some former supporters say Yeltsin should step down early for health reasons and call a presidential election before the scheduled date midway through 2000.

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said Tuesday that Yeltsin's aides are "mocking" Russians by insisting he has no crippling illness.

"Mr. Yeltsin's inability to work has been obvious to us for quite a long time," Zyuganov said at a news conference. He called for Yeltsin to undergo an independent medical exam and make those results public.

Several politicians, including Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, have effectively launched their campaigns already.

Yeltsin has said he will see ut his term and has defied doctors to appear in the Kremlin several times in the last two weeks to try to prove he is healthy.

That seems to have backfired, setting back his recovery after he stumbled and nearly fell in full view of the television cameras while in Central Asia.

Increasingly, the Kremlin seems intent on preserving the status quo with Primakov deputizing for the president.

One consolation has been that Primakov, a respected veteran backed by liberals and Communists alike, has helped restore political stability since he became prime minister in September.

But critics have said that stability has not been matched by action to beat the crisis. The government failed to produce its economic program after discussions on Monday and officials said talks with the IMF were proving difficult.