RUSSIA: PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN OFF DUTY DUE TO ILLNESS

(25 Nov 1999) Russian/Nat

Russian President Boris Yeltsin has again fallen ill.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that the 68-year-old Russian president is resting at home with a viral infection and bronchitis.

Yeltsin is said to have started feeling ill after a meeting with the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, and other officials.

News broke on Thursday that Russian President Boris Yeltsin is again off duty due to illness.

But there were no details on the seriousness of Yeltsin's illness.

The president has been in hospital frequently in the past, and the doctors' decision to send him home suggested they judged his ailment to be relatively mild.

Yeltsin has looked relatively healthy in recent days.

He seemed particularly full of energy last week in Turkey where he staunchly defended Russia's military offensive in Chechnya.

Thursday marked the tenth time that the Kremlin has announced a Yeltsin illness since he was reelected in 1996.

His heart problems led to bypass surgery three years ago, and he has also suffered from a bleeding ulcer, double pneumonia and unstable blood pressure.

He went down with bronchitis in October last year and had to cut short a trip to Kazakstan.

The president rarely manages a full day of work in the Kremlin, and usually visits his office only a few days a week.

But he has insisted he will serve out his second term, which runs until the middle of next year.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Yeltsin's latest illness was nothing to worry about.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"And if it wasn't for our meeting with the press I'd be talking to him now because he's (Yeltsin) just called and asked me to come to the phone. So therefore I think, indeed I know, that it's nothing serious. The President has lost his voice a little and has a light cold. And this morning there was an important meeting."
SUPER CAPTION: Vladimir Putin, Russian Prime Minister

Russian Nationalist leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, said Yeltsin's illness was nothing more than a tactical move.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"He's healthy, everything is OK. It's just a political indisposition, in order to weigh up again questions concerning the union with Belorussia, the parliamentary elections and the presidential elections, a whole range of questions. It's just his latest tactical manoeuvre."
SUPER CAPTION: Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Russian Nationalist leader

Russians have grown accustomed to Yeltsin's illnesses and extended disappearances from public view.

As all the government's everyday affairs are handled by Putin Yeltsin's absence is not seen as a cause for alarm.

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