DOUBTS about the pace of President Yeltsin's recovery were raised by the postponement of his proposed address to the Russian people yesterday.

Meanwhile his powerful chief of staff, Mr Anatoly Chubais, has become embroiled in a political scandal over the removal of $500,000 in cash from government buildings in Moscow.

The presidential spokesman, Mr Sergei Yastrzhembsky, announced yesterday that the address, which he had said would be made this week, would not take place. Mr Yeltsin's "image makers", he said, wanted the President to look his best on TV and were not yet ready to let him be seen.

Doctors, including the leading US surgeon Mr Michael DeBakey, had previously described Mr Yeltsin's progress in terms ranging from "satisfactory" to "dramatic".

Mr DeBakey, who has returned to Texas, is regarded as the world's leading heart surgeon, but his prognoses for recovery have not always been on target. On July 8th, 1980, in Cairo, he made optimistic statements about the recovery from surgery of the Shah of Iran who died three weeks later.

There is no reason to doubt that Mr Yeltsin is recovering, however, but the speed at which he is returning to normal is under question.

His condition was completely overshadowed in Moscow yesterday by the publication in Moskovsky Komsomolets, the country's largest selling newspaper, of what it said was a transcript of a taped conversation between Mr Chubais and deputy prime minister Mr Viktor Ilyushin, in which the two men apparently spoke of attempting to block investigations into the removal of $500,000 from the Moscow White House during Mr Yeltsin's election campaign.

The newspaper said it received the tape from one of Russia's intelligence agencies, but it is generally believed that it was supplied by Mr Yeltsin's former close friend, Gen Alexander Korzhakov, who was sacked last June and has now become an ally of the dismissed security chief, Gen Alexander Lebed.

Two of Mr Yeltsin's supporters were arrested with the money one the night of June 19th this year. A special broadcast in the early hours of the morning on the NTV channel described the arrest as a "coup d'etat" which had "endangered the motherland".

On the next day Mr Chubais announced that Gen Korzhakov, the head of the Kremlin bodyguard, whose troops had arrested the men, had been fired.

The transcript in Moskovsky Komsomolets portrayed Mr Chubais and Mr Ilyushin as trying to block an investigation as to why the money was being transported from the White House.

The issue was raised yesterday in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, with most deputies calling for an investigation of the affair.