Medical Team Says Yeltsin’s Vital Signs Stable After Move To Kremlin

President Boris Yeltsin, recovering from a heart bypass operation, is getting more exercise following his transfer from intensive care to the Kremlin hospital, his doctors said today.

Yeltsin’s medical team said the president “took the move well” and his vital signs, including blood pressure and pulse, were stable, the presidential press service said in a statement.

The 65-year-old Russian leader underwent quintuple bypass surgery on Tuesday. On Friday, doctors acceded to Yeltsin’s request to be moved from the Moscow Cardiological Center, where the operation took place, to the nearby Kremlin hospital.

“Four days after the operation, the exercise regime of the patient has been extensively widened,” the medical update said.

Doctors plan to steadily increase Yeltsin’s physical therapy and have predicted he could be up to most of his presidential duties within two weeks.

Yeltsin’s doctors were the guests of honor today at a Kremlin lunch presided over by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. The president’s chief surgeon, Dr. Renat Akchurin, and American cardiologist Michael DeBakey, who consulted with Russian doctors on the operation, were among those present.

On Friday, Chernomyrdin said Yeltsin was already turning his attention to affairs of state. “The president’s health will improve very fast now,” he said after Yeltsin was transferred.

Presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said Yeltsin was sitting up and walking around.

He said at a briefing Friday that the president had asked for his favorite classical recordings to be sent to the hospital. “When someone asks for classical music it’s the best sign that he’s getting well,” Yastrzhembsky said.