The White House sees no reason for concern about the health of the Russian President, Mr Boris Yeltsin, who has been admitted to a sanitarium with a viral infection, a US official said yesterday. The official added that the White House had no reason to believe that it did not have "the full story" on Mr Yeltsin's illness.
The Kremlin said yesterday Mr Yeltsin had an acute respiratory viral infection resulting from a cold and would stay at a sanitarium outside Moscow for 10 to 12 days.
A White House spokesman said the US President, Mr Bill Clinton, who was in New York, hoped Mr Yeltsin would get better quickly.
"We understand that he has a cold and is at a sanitarium outside Moscow," he said. "The President wishes him a speedy recovery."
In Moscow, a Russian presidential spokesman, Mr Sergei Yastrzhembsky, told reporters Mr Yeltsin was not in bed but had been told by doctors not to go outdoors. He said he was able to work on documents while at the sanitarium.
Mr Yeltsin (66), underwent heart surgery in November last year. After the surgery he caught pneumonia, which delayed his return to the Kremlin until February.
He has made a strong recovery, regaining weight lost during his illness and keeping a busy work schedule that has included trips abroad.
President Yeltsin may have nothing more serious than a viral infection, but official nerves are on edge in Moscow.
During yesterday's briefing Mr Yastrzhembsky got a fright when a stern-faced aide suddenly came running towards the podium.
The assembled reporters too were stunned into silence as the official handed him a piece of paper.
The spokesman was visibly relieved when he was able to state that the note concerned nothing more urgent than a report of a television news broadcast on a parliamentary deputy calling for Mr Yeltsin to be impeached because of the air crash in Siberia last weekend.