Yeltsin Kept Surgery From Voters He Knew Heart Operation Possible As Campaign Began

Despite public assurances he was vigorous and well, Boris Yeltsin went into his re-election campaign knowing he might require open-heart surgery, the Kremlin’s chief doctor admitted Thursday.

The revelation laid bare yet another chapter in the Kremlin’s effort to hide the truth about the president’s health until he secured another term in office.

American heart surgeon Michael DeBakey said Thursday that Yeltsin could “resume a normal life” after the surgery, planned for November or December.

But Yeltsin’s own security chief, Alexander Lebed, said that the delayed operation and the monthslong recovery period is leaving Russia “rudderless.”

Even though foreign news media broke the story weeks ago, Russians only learned last week that Yeltsin suffered an apparent heart attack between the first round of voting and the July 3 runoff.

Now it appears the deception began far earlier.

Dr. Sergei Mironov said doctors told Yeltsin before the campaign that he might need bypass surgery. “Indications (that surgery was needed) emerged even before” the campaign, he said in an interview on NTV television.

But he said the president wanted to wait. “This was connected to very serious and difficult work linked to the election campaign,” Mironov explained.

According to Mironov, the 65-year-old president felt he had the stamina to get through the campaign. “Boris Nikolayevich said, ‘Let’s carry out this campaign, which is important for the country, and get back to medicine after,”’ recalled Mironov.

The campaign officially began in February; Mironov did not specify when the doctors first spoke to Yeltsin about surgery.