MR Boris Yeltsin, speaking slowly and walking stiffly, was sworn in as Russia's President yesterday at a Kremlin ceremony overshadowed by a humiliating rebel offensive in Chechnya which trapped thousands of his soldiers.
Mr Yeltsin (65) spent only 16 minutes on stage and spoke tore just 45 seconds in his first public appearance for weeks after an election victory which aides say exhausted him.
He did not stumble as he walked across the stage of the vast Kremlin Palace congress hall and stood solidly before 3,000 invited guests and millions of television viewers. But his performance will do little to end speculation about his health.
"By the will of the people, I will continue the business I started five years ago," President Yeltsin told a banquet in his honour after the ceremony.
President Yeltsin declared today a day of national mourning for hundreds killed in this week's fighting in Grozny. He made his first statement on the latest flare up in fighting a few hours after the inauguration ceremony.
The statement said a revival of collapsed peace negotiations was the only way to end the conflict.
But there was little to celebrate as Russian troops suffered bloody setbacks on the fourth day of a rebel offensive in the Chechen capital, Grozny. Hundreds have been killed or wounded.
A Russian military source said the situation was "totally out of control", with the units surrounded in Grozny limiting themselves to passive defence.