DOCTORS preparing President Boris Yell sin for a heart bypass operation ordered him to stay in Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital over the weekend instead of allowing him out as the irrepressible Russian leader had hoped.
In the frankest statement yet about the health of the 65 year old president, one doctor admitted he had more than heart trouble. "We must understand that the person is getting ready for a very serious operation," said Dr Sergei Mironov, the head of the presidential health centre.
Russian cardiologists and Western consultants, including the pioneering US surgeon, Mr Michael DeBakey, will meet next Wednesday to set a day for the operation. Dr Mironov admitted Mr Yeltsin had more than a heart problem. "All of us during our lives acquire quite a lot of different problems with our organs and unfortunately Boris Nikolayevich has them too," he said.
But there are limits to the new openness about the health of Russian leaders and Dr Mironov did not comment on persistent rumours that Mr Yeltsin has a bad liver as a result of heavy drinking.
Mr Yeltsin has moved to stop any power struggle in his absence by declaring that his prime minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, who himself underwent a heart bypass some years ago, will be acting president with control over the nuclear button while he is incapacitated.
The Kremlin leader has his wife, Naina, with him in hospital. She has just had a kidney operation there.