Ailing Yeltsin Cancels All Appointments

Three days after telling the public that he was in fine health, President Boris N. Yeltsin canceled all his appointments Friday and retreated to his country home, suffering from what the Kremlin called an “acute respiratory disorder.”

It was unclear how severe the illness is for the 67-year-old president, who has been bedridden for much of his second term in office.

Aides said Yeltsin began going hoarse Thursday, then abruptly called off all his meetings Friday morning.

Yeltsin had declared on national television Tuesday that he was in good shape and even challenged journalists to compete with him “in a swimming pool, at a tennis court or on a track.”

“Reporters harp on this topic all the time,” Yeltsin complained. “The subject of the president’s health should be closed. This subject does not exist.”

The president has been touchy about his health since suffering a heart attack just before his reelection in July 1996.

At the time, his aides initially said his disappearance from public view was because of a sore throat. Yeltsin later underwent bypass surgery, but soon after his recovery he was felled by double pneumonia.

In December, a respiratory illness knocked Yeltsin out for two weeks, and he spent another two weeks recovering during what the Kremlin called a vacation.

Between sick leaves, Yeltsin has attempted to demonstrate that he is vigorous and in charge, frequently reshuffling his Cabinet and publicly chewing out his top ministers in televised sessions.

But his prolonged absences from the Kremlin have worried foreign investors who see him as a symbol of the country’s economic stability.

Within half an hour of the disclosure of Yeltsin’s illness Friday, Russia’s blue chip stocks went down 2%.