A SENIOR US cardiologist, Dr Michael Debakey, flew from Washington to Moscow last night to take part in a medical council that will decide whether to carry out or postpone heart surgery on President Yeltsin.
Russia's top heart surgeons are to meet on Wednesday or Thursday to weigh the medical risks of performing a heart operation on Mr Yeltsin, as further revelations over the weekend about the Russian president's real medical condition sent shudders through the political establishment.
There was a complete silence, reminiscent of Soviet days, on all official news agencies about the assertion by a Russian surgeon that Mr Yeltsin had a previous, undisclosed heart attack and that the planned heart bypass operation would probably have to be postponed.
Mr Yeltsin's younger daughter, who is camped in hospital with him, acted last night as if nothing had happened. Ms Tatiana Djachenko said in an interview with Looking Glass on Russian television that the operation would go ahead and it "will be done by our surgeons".
Having admitted that he would be a "passive" or lame duck president without heart surgery, Mr Yeltsin is rapidly running out of options. His electorate, meanwhile - facing another winter of economic misery will also feel cheated by the cover up of an apparent third heart attack that occurred during a crucial stage in July's elections.
The disclosure was made by Prof Renat Akchurin, the cardiac surgeon who was officially nominated to lead the team conducting the operation. He said he had found scarring on the heart which clearly indicated a heart attack in late June or early July - just before the second round of elections.
Prof Akchurin made clear that he had blown the whistle of preservation. He said: "The most likely [outcome] is that the operation will be postponed. In effect, if the risks are high, no will want to take the chance. Here, like in France and in the United States, a surgeon does not jump off a plane without a parachute."
The presidential press office issued no statements and its press officers went to ground. A spokesman said only that Prof Akchurin's comments had been distributed "to all the people concerned".
The Kremlin's chief physician, Dr Sergei Mironov, tried unconvincingly to maintain the line that the preparation for the operation was going ahead "normally". Speaking on the independent Radio Echo Mosckvi, he blamed journalists for stirring a panic.
The presidential chief of staff Mr Anatoly Chubais, said: "Those politicians who believe that it is time to take up starting positions in a presidential campaign will very soon realise, that they have jumped the gun.
With an economy in tatters and a real financial crisis looming over the government's inability to pay its public sector workers their wages, the political weight of the communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, increases as his party is largely in control of the State Duma.
He can offer the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin - who is to be given presidential powers while Mr Yeltsin is out of action - a quiet Duma, in return for Mr Zyuganov's ultimate goal a government of national unity.