MOSCOW - President Yeltsin (66) was told by a leading liberal parliamentarian yesterday that he must recover his health in time to read an hour long state of the union address to both houses of Russia's parliament, or be declared unfit for office.
The extraordinary statement came from a presidential supporter, Mr Alexander Shokhin, a former minister, who is now deputy chairman of the State Duma.
Mr Shokhin said the president had to recover by March 5th and read the speech "in person", or he would be regarded as "failing in one of his most important duties".
Yesterday, Mr Yeltsin's wife, Naina, denied a newspaper report alleging that she tried and failed to get Mr Yeltsin to retire.