On the weekend before the final vote of the Russian election, President Boris Yeltsin canceled his Kremlin appearances and retreated to Barvikha, a government resort for the elite in a village outside Moscow. "The president is in good form," announced his press secretary, Sergei Medvedev, who added that Yeltsin had lost his voice.
But the reality was different. A campaign camera crew visiting Barvikha that weekend to tape Yeltsin's pre-election address to the nation found the president pale and weak, according to a Russian political source. He was breathing heavily. He could barely get through the speech, which had to be taped three times. One of those who saw Yeltsin told colleagues in Moscow a few hours later: "The grandfather is in bad shape."The videotape from Barvikha was heavily edited before it was broadcast July 1, and the "grandfather" went on to win re-election two days later. Most of Russia knew little about his medical problems, except that he had once again dropped out of sight. To this day, Russians have not been told how ill Yeltsin was that weekend, nor how ill he has been since.
Yeltsin's health has once again become a riddle reminiscent of the Soviet era when Leonid Brezhnev was sick for years but the public was left guessing about his condition. The Kremlin has resorted to old-style propaganda tricks to hide Yeltsin's condition, including heavy editing of video footage - in one case cropping white-coated doctors out of a key picture - or issuing misleading statements about Yeltsin suffering from a cold, to explain his unexpected absences.
The truth about Yeltsin's health is important not only because he is at the helm of an enormous country in a precarious state of transition but also because his condition may trigger yet another leadership struggle within Russia.
Should Yeltsin die or be incapacitated, the constitution provides that he would be temporarily followed by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and that elections would be held within three months. Already, there are signs of an incipient contest for post-Yeltsin power among Chernomyr- din, security chief Alexander Lebed and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
The Kremlin has never made public details of Yeltsin's medical condition or treatments. According to onetime Yeltsin press secretary Pavel Voschanov, Yeltsin hates to see anything in public about his health.