Moscow - President Boris Yeltsin returned to the political fray yesterday for the first time in more than two weeks after being laid low by exhaustion and irregular blood pressure. But in a sign of the huge economic problems he faces, a government minister said Russia was making a formal request for $500 million in food aid from the European Union.
The President moved stiffly but was in good humour at the start of nearly two hours of talks in the Kremlin with the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Keizo Obuchi.