YELTSIN TO UNDERGO HEART SURGERY.

Russian president Boris Yeltsin admitted to the Russian public in a TV interview last night that he is suffering from heart disease. He said his doctors had offered him a choice between surgery and a passive life, and that he had chosen surgery because a passive life had "never suited" him. Yeltsin said he was making the announcement "because I want our society to be based on truth." He said he would undergo the operation, believed to be a coronary by-pass, in Russia at the end of September. (RTR, September 5) Yeltsin, who was hospitalized twice last year for heart problems, was last seen in public at his August 9 inauguration, when he looked stiff and tired. He has been on holiday since August 26.

Yeltsin Endorses Peace Plan, Almost.