Absence Casts Doubt on Yeltsin’s Health : Russia: President misses Easter services, causing speculation despite recent favorable medical report.

President Boris N. Yeltsin missed Russian Orthodox Easter services early today, casting some doubt on a new Kremlin medical report that the 64-year-old leader is generally in good health.

Russian news agencies said that Yeltsin, who has appeared in public just once this month, was expected to attend midnight services at a Moscow cathedral.

But long after the church had overflowed with worshipers and the five-hour service had begun, Yeltsin was not in the VIP section with Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, Moscow Mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov and other dignitaries.

There was no official explanation of Yeltsin’s absence, even though it was unusual. Attendance at Christmas and Easter services, which are nationally televised, has become a politically beneficial custom for the president since he declared his Christian faith three years ago.

Just two days ago, Kremlin spokesman Sergei Medvedev saw fit to issue a detailed report on Yeltsin’s latest medical checkup in an attempt to dispel what he called “rumors and blatant speculation” that the president is ill.

On March 29, a weak and disoriented-looking Yeltsin cut short a planned two-week tour to meet the people of Russia’s heartland three days after it had begun and went on vacation on the Black Sea coast.

He has made one public appearance since then, at an April 11 meeting with industry leaders and an outing to the horse races in the southern city of Nalchik, just before returning to work in the Kremlin. In television footage from Nalchik, he looked rested and in good spirits.

Yeltsin looked unsteady during a February visit to Kazakhstan, where he needed assistance to climb stairs.

The medical report issued Friday gave what may be an explanation for that problem, saying for the first time that Yeltsin suffers from “a vegetative-vascular dystonia,” or occasional muscle weakness caused by high blood pressure. But he keeps his blood pressure under control with medication and is in overall good health, the report added.

Yeltsin suffers no neurological disorders or other aftereffects from a spinal operation he had in 1990 and has fully recovered from surgery last December to correct a deviated septum, the report said.

“The president’s doctors have concluded that B. N. Yeltsin’s health is better,” the spokesman said. “This means he is able to maintain the physical activity and capacity to work at a level which corresponds to his age.”

The Russian leader will have a heavy work schedule over the next few weeks. He is supposed to host 55 world leaders for May 9 celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany and hold a summit meeting with President Clinton the next day.