Boris Yeltsin met with commanders of the disputed Black Sea fleet Tuesday, appearing in the Russian port of Novorossiysk a day after inexplicably canceling two days of appointments in Moscow, his office said.
Yeltsin's spokesman, Pavel Voshchanov, said the Russian president was aboard the cruiser Moskva with commonwealth military commander Yevgeny Shaposhnikov gathering information about the security of nuclear weapons.Voshchanov said the visit was part of Yeltsin's preparations for an overseas trip later this week that is to include meetings with President Bush, British Prime Minister John Major and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada, the Tass news agency reported.
Tass earlier quoted the mayor of Novorossiysk, Georgy Khobotov, as saying the visit to the Black Sea port was unrelated to the tug-of-war between Russia and Ukraine over control of the fleet.
Yeltsin, 60, abruptly canceled his appointments in the capital on Monday and Tuesday, including one with Japan's foreign minister. The cancellations fueled persistent rumors about his health and an alleged drinking problem.
Tass said Yeltsin arrived Monday night in Novorossiysk.
Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev said the overseas trip was still on.
He told delegates to Middle East peace talks that opened in Moscow Tuesday that "in the coming days, the world will hear a series of initiatives (from Yeltsin) that will prove that everyone will benefit from the new situation" in the former Soviet Union.
Yeltsin is the most popular and powerful politician in Russia, and reports of his ill health increase political instability in the newly independent country.
Since the August coup, he has dropped from public sight several times, including three days in September when aides said he was suffering from a minor heart ailment and a 17-day stretch in October after weeks of relentless work.
On Jan. 18, after some strenuous travels inside Russia, Yeltsin was ordered by his doctor to rest at home.