PRESIDENT Boris Yeltsin (65) is recovering from a serious bout of pneumonia but must stay in hospital for the rest of the week because of the risk of complications, the chief Kremlin doctor said yesterday.
"I should say that this is a fairly serious illness, which of course brings with it a whole range of possible complications," said Dr Sergei Mironov, who said last Friday that Mr Yeltsin would leave hospital early this week.
He told a news conference that Mr Yeltsin's condition had "stabilised considerably" but the President, who had initially insisted on only three days in hospital, had been persuaded that he needed more time to be treated.
Meanwhile, the opposition communists said Mr Yeltsin was unable to exercise power and the country was in deep crisis.
A Communist deputy, Mr Viktor Ilyukhin, who heads the Duma's security committee, said he would press for a parliamentary vote tomorrow to oust Mr Yeltsin for health reasons, even though legal experts said such a vote would have no legal force.