The American who sponsored Boris N. Yeltsin's tour of America strongly denies accusations published by a Soviet newspaper that the Communist Party maverick was publicly drunk for much of the trip.
"If there was any problem with Yeltsin, it was jet lag," said Jim Garrison, executive director of the Esalen Institute Soviet-American Exchange Program, which sponsored the nine-day, 11-city tour. "Most of the time he was cold sober."Pravda, organ of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee, on Monday reprinted an article from the Italian newspaper La Republica saying Yeltsin was repeatedly drunk during the tour and squandered his lecture fees shopping.
Yeltsin "leaves behind him a wake of catastrophic prophecies, insane expenses, interviews, and above all the perfume of Jack Daniels Black label," said the article, translated into Russian.
Pravda did not comment on the article, but advertised it in a front-page box that said Yeltsin found the United States "a holiday, a stage, a bar 5,000 kilometers long."
Yeltsin, interviewed as he arrived back in Moscow from the trip, called the report "garbage."
"It's a simple lie, slander and revenge for the fact that Americans received us with admiration," he said, flushing with anger.