Yeltsin Reported More Ill Than Kremlin Admits

NEW YORK — Boris N. Yeltsin’s health is far more precarious than previously disclosed, Time magazine reported Sunday. The Russian president is so ill, Time said, that the Kremlin is considering sending him abroad for double-bypass surgery.

Yeltsin’s health has been a dire concern for months, especially in the run-up to his July reelection, when Yeltsin inexplicably disappeared for days--prompting rumors that the 65-year-old leader had suffered a heart attack or had gone on a drinking binge.

Time said it obtained a Kremlin medical advisory detailing the seriousness of Yeltsin’s condition. The advisory said that V. S. Dubrovin, who heads the team of doctors monitoring the president’s health, reported that Yeltsin’s cardiac ischemia--constriction of the heart caused by blocked arteries--had worsened during the election campaign following a “crisis situation” in mid-June.

“According to a source close to the president’s security service,” Time reported, a “relapse occurred partly because Yeltsin gave up his prescribed medication and went on a drinking binge that may have affected his heart as well as the left side of his brain.”

There was no official response Sunday in Moscow to the magazine report, nor did the presidential press service answer phone calls.

Yeltsin dropped out of sight at the end of the campaign and on July 15 checked into a government health resort outside Moscow. Aides said he worked steadily during his stay at the resort and needs a more thorough rest.