Yeltsin Health Concerns Spur Change in Venue for Summit With Kohl, Chirac
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MOSCOW — On the advice of Boris N. Yeltsin’s doctors, a summit planned for next week was moved Friday to Moscow to spare the Russian leader the trip, raising new questions about his health.
The president had paid an unexpected visit to the Kremlin in the morning, as if to demonstrate he was in top form. He spent three hours conferring on arrangements for the summit to be held with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President Jacques Chirac.
Yeltsin, 67, spoke by telephone with Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin and Foreign Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov, both on diplomatic missions abroad. He then returned to his suburban residence.
Yeltsin’s press service said the change of summit venue from Yekaterinburg to Moscow was made “by mutual agreement” with the French and German governments and that the summit will still be held Wednesday and Thursday.
Yeltsin’s doctors recommended the change to spare Yeltsin the long flight to central Russia after his weeklong bout with a respiratory infection, the Interfax news agency said.
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