YELTSIN DEFIES HIS DOCTORS.

President Boris Yeltsin announced this morning that he intends to leave the sanitarium where he has been recovering from a "severe cold" and will return home tomorrow. On December 18, when Yeltsin announced his intention of going home the following day, his doctors advised him to remain in the sanitarium for a further week, and were supported by presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky. Today, however, Yeltsin insisted that it is "high time" for him to get back to his desk, and Yastrzhembsky confirmed the president’s decision. Moreover, Yastrzhembsky refrained today from repeating his assertion of last week that the president will take a holiday at the end of this year or beginning of next. (BBC, December 22) The weekend’s conflicting statements had prompted the media to depict Yeltsin as a helpless old man being bossed around by his aides.

Chernomyrdin Promises Investigation Into Information Leak.