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Russia: Yeltsin Cancels Austria Trip


Moscow, 26 October 1998 (RFE/RL) - The Kremlin said today that Russian President Boris Yeltsin has canceled a scheduled trip to Vienna tomorrow for talks with European Union and international financial officials on the advice of his doctors. Russian news agencies quote presidential spokesman Dmitry Yakushkin as saying the 67-year-old Yeltsin is suffering from a condition involving physical and psychological exhaustion.

Yakushkin said Yeltsin's blood pressure is also unstable. Yakushkin says doctors saw no reason for Yeltsin to be in the hospital but advised him to take a holiday.

The Kremlin says Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov will go to Vienna in Yeltsin's place for talks focusing on security issues, including the new interim Middle East peace accord and the Kosovo crisis. Yeltsin had been due also to meet International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials to discuss Russia's economic crisis.

Yeltsin was forced to cut short a trip to Central Asia earlier this month and Kremlin doctors said then he was suffering from bronchitis. Since then, he has made some appearances at the Kremlin but has spent most of his time at his residence outside Moscow.
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