INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS: Yeltsin's health suffering, rivals seek to replace him

Boris Yeltsin's heart surgeon, Dr. Renat Akchurin, said the Russian president still needs about two more weeks to recover after developing pneumonia.

Akchurin performed a successful quintuple bypass surgery on the president on Nov. 5, a few months after Yeltsin suffered a heart attack while campaigning for re-election. Only two weeks after returning to work full-time at the Kremlin, Yeltsin caught the flu, then pneumonia. He is now recuperating at his country home outside Moscow.

During his absence, Yeltsin's foes have tried to come up with ways to oust him.

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov has called for a constitutional amendment that would make it easier to replace an ailing president. The current constitution has no mechanism for replacing an ill leader or determining if a president is incapacitated.

Source: USA Today Online, Feb. 12.

This item appeared in the News section of the February 14, 1997 issue.

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