Yeltsin Comes Out Of 7-Hour Heart Surgery

Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky told Russian news agencies that the multiple bypass operation, which Yeltsin hopes can give him strength to end months of political in-fighting, ended successfully at 2 pm.

A source at Moscows Cardiology Research Centre told Reuters: Everything was fine, great...He is ok.

The President will take some hours to shrug off the effects of the anaesthetic and it may be some time after that before he feels well enough to take back power from his Prime Minister.

Yeltsin, said to be cracking jokes before going under the anaesthetic, temporarily handed over power, including the nuclear trigger, to Viktor Chernomyrdin, one of several figures jostling for position around the sick president.

 

Yeltsin issued a written statement saying he was confident of recovery and reassuring Russians there was no power vacuum.

Not for a minute will the country be without a leader with full powers, Yeltsin said. He (Chernomyrdin) and my other colleagues are tested and reliable people.