Yeltsin Shows Off New Health With Stroll, Interview In Moscow

Looking more robust than he has in five months, President Boris Yeltsin Wednesday donned a black fur hat and took a stroll on a chilly Moscow day to show Russians that he’s recovering after heart surgery.

“They took out the stitches this morning,” Yeltsin told a waiting Russian TV crew. “Now it is necessary to train myself, by means of greater physical loads, greater emotional loads, in order to begin, begin, begin to restore my full power.”

The videotape showed Yeltsin, 65, walking a dozen steps under his own power, then talking lucidly while he was standing on his feet, and finally sitting down without having to be supported. It was his first public appearance since he underwent a quintuple heart bypass 15 days ago.

His ruddy complexion and firmer speech patterns suggested that Yeltsin has survived his surgery without major complications. He declared himself “in fighting mood.”

“My heart already does not hurt. I can’t feel my heart, unlike before the operation,” Yeltsin said.

The three-minute interview was the first time Yeltsin has been seen speaking in full sentences since Sept. 5.