DID CHERNOMYRDIN PERSUADE YELTSIN TO HAVE SURGERY?

Sergei Parkhomenko, editor of the weekly magazine Itogi which published an interview with Boris Yeltsin on Monday, says that initially the Russian president refused to have heart surgery. Parkhomenko believes it was Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin who changed his mind. "He must have told Yeltsin: ‘Look, the same surgeon did the same operation on me in 1992 and here I am, alive and fit’," Parkhomenko told Reuters. The surgeon who operated on Chernomyrdin, Professor Rinat Akchurin, is said to be the only Russian cardiologist brave enough to have volunteered to operate on the president. (Reuters, September 10)

Rutskoi’s Attempt to Run for Office Foiled.