Yeltsin advised to resume work with great care

AS President Yeltsin's recovery continued and he retook control of Russia's nuclear briefcase, the US surgeon, Dr Michael De Bakey, warned him to be "a good patient" and not to take on too much too soon.

Dr De Bakey said Mr Yeltsin, who was visited by his family as well as by the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, and the Kremlin chief of staff, Mr Anatoly Chubais, was making excellent progress after his quintuple bypass operation.

He contradicted previous Kremlin reports that Mr Yeltsin had been working a full schedule in the build up to the operation, saying that he had been able only to work for two to three hours a day before becoming exhausted.

Dr De Bakey said Mr Yeltsin would be able to resume his duties fully in six to eight weeks but warned him not to get back into action too quickly.

Mr Yeltsin's doctors said yesterday that in the 48 hour period following surgery, complications could still arise.

The Kremlin announced yesterday that Mr Yeltsin had already resumed his full duties as President of the Russian Federation but this is likely to have been purely for domestic consumption in an attempt to reassure the Russian people that the situation has stabilised.

There were signs already that Mr Yeltsin might not become the "good patient" Dr De Bakey has urged him to be. As his recovery progressed he was reported to have pestered his doctors to be transferred from the Chazov Moscow Cardiological Centre, where the surgery was performed, to the Central Clinical Hospital, where he was treated for his previous heart attacks.

Should his recovery proceed as predicted, Mr Yeltsin would be able to resume his presidential duties fully in six to eight weeks and might even be able to play tennis once more in three to four months.

It is likely that Mr Yeltsin will pursue his work with increased vigour as he recovers and while that may be stood news for some in his administration it could be very had news for others.

Most analysts have predicted that heads will roll as soon as the President gets back into action.

The man most likely to lose his job, they say, is the new deputy security chief, Mr Boris Berezovsky, a wealthy businessman who has been accused by political opponents of all sorts of skulduggery, including conspiring to murder his rivals.

The position of Mr Chubais, who has been accused of trying to impose himself as "regent of Russia" during the President's illness, is far from secure. He has been dismissed before by Mr Yeltsin and he could he dismissed again.

Reuters adds: Mrs Naina Yeltsin visibly relieved, said yesterday she could smile again after her husband's heart operation and was now having to hold him back from a hasty departure from hospital.

She said all the artificial tubes had been removed from his body and he was half sitting up in bed and talking freely.

"There is a totally different mood today than yesterday. You feel like smiling," she said having visited her husband with their two daughters. "In my opinion he himself feels better."

Speaking on television, she echoed earlier comments by the Kremlin's spokesman that Mr Yeltsin was itching to be let out of the Cardiology Research Centre where the operation was performed. "He is already talking about how long he has to be in here. We understand that he wants to leave this place," she said. "We will really, really hold him back."