Even some of President Yeltsin's associates have begun to admit he is not capable of fulfilling his presidential duties, as a major showdown between Russia's "reformers" and the Prime Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, looms. Mr Yeltsin was admitted to Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital on Sunday with what his spokesman, Mr Dmitri Yakushkin, described as "pneumonia". Kremlin statements on Mr Yeltsin's health have in the past been shown to be extremely unreliable. When sidelined by a major heart attack in 1996 it was announced that he had a sore throat. A leading "reformer" and leader of the main pro-Yeltsin grouping in the Duma, Mr Alexander Shokhin, admitted yesterday to the news agency Interfax that Mr Yeltsin appeared unable "fully to fulfil his presidential duties" and went on to accuse Mr Primakov of acting as a presidential successor.
"We must examine the way the country is run, because Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov is acting as a de facto vice-president," said Mr Shokhin, who resigned earlier this year after a brief spell as a minister in Mr Primakov's government.
While the post of vice-president was abolished after differences between Mr Yeltsin and his vice-president Mr Alexander Rutskoy in 1993, the constitution does devolve certain powers to the prime minister if the president is incapacitated. Should Mr Yeltsin be officially determined incapable of fulfilling his duties, Mr Primakov would assume the role of the president for three months in the build up to new presidential elections.
The reformers, a group of young English-speaking radical monetarists led by the highly unpopular Mr Anatoly Chubais, have been deeply involved in the changes to Russia's economy from 1992 up to the economy's collapse in August of this year. Mr Chubais, the privatisation chief who oversaw the transfer of state assets to a small group of extremely wealthy businessmen with whom he was closely associated, has become a hate figure not only among the communist-led opposition to Mr Yeltsin but to the public at large. All Russians were issued with privatisation vouchers by Mr Chubais in 1992 but these have turned out to be worthless.
Mr Chubais's reputation was further dented by a scandal in which he received $90,000 as an advance on a book on Russian privatisation from Mr Vladimir Potanin, the owner of a company which was successful in the "privatisation auction" for Svyazinvest, Russia's major telecommunications company.
In an interview at the APEC summit in Malaysia last week, Mr Primakov vigorously attacked Mr Chubais and other "reformers" who, he said, were disseminating false information about his government to western governments and international agencies.
Clashes between the radical monetarists and more conservative elements have been a feature of the power vacuums which have characterised Mr Yeltsin's presidency. His illnesses and disabilities have also been used for more devious purposes, as illustrated by the latest political scandal.
The Duma yesterday ordered an investigation into an alleged transfer of 26 per cent of the shares of the nationwide TV service ORT into Mr Yeltsin's name in 1994. Media magnate Mr Boris Berezovsky, a close associate of Mr Yeltsin's influential daughter Ms Tatyana Dyachenko and himself a major shareholder in ORT, said the transfer took place, without the president's knowledge, at the behest of former KGB Gen Alexander Korzhakov who was then head of the presidential bodyguard.
Mr Yeltsin's meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin was cut to 40 minutes yesterday and a forthcoming visit to Moscow by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands was cancelled. The Kremlin announced that Mr Yeltsin will remain in hospital for 10 days.