YELTSIN HOSPITALIZED.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin checked into the Barvikha sanatorium today (October 27). The facility is a well-equipped medical center near Moscow, and the same one where Yeltsin has recovered from past medical problems, including multiple heart bypass surgery in 1996. The president’s office attributed the hospitalization to unstable blood pressure and exhaustion. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Yakushkin said that Yeltsin would undergo “a course of restoration treatment.” The length of his stay depends on the treatment scheduled, Yakushkin said without elaboration. Before entering the sanitorium, Yeltsin met Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and reportedly authorized him to tell EU officials about Moscow’s plan for dealing with the latest of its economic crises (Reuters, AP, Russian agencies, October 27). (For political context, see item below.)

YELTSIN’S HEALTH, AGAIN, IS FRONT AND CENTER.