THE contrast could hardly have been more graphically drawn. There was Dr Michael DeBakey, the 88 year old American heart surgeon, wafting confidently into Moscow to minister to a man nearly a quarter of a century his junior.
The envoy of the New World, with its capitalist riches and obsession with longevity, had arrived to rescue a victim of the Old, with its post communist legacy of instability, fatalism, and unhealthy habits. The cardiologist looked as sprightly as a man half his age as he stepped off his aircraft, accepted a bouquet and walked into a tidal wave of questions about every detail of President Yeltsin's health.
The only glimpse that Russians received of the 65 year old president was sadly familiar - a weak looking figure, briefly shown on television before his medical team met to give the go ahead to his by pass operation.
The meeting symbolised the gulf that has opened up in living standards between the world's former Cold War adversaries.
Both men are, of course, exceptional. For decades, Dr DeBakey's pioneering techniques have attracted the world's wealthiest, and most mollycoddled, people to the Texas Medical Centre in Houston, America's largest health care centre. His address book has included names like Frank Sinatra, Lyndon Johnson and the Clintons.
Mr Yeltsin has endured the intense pressure of clinging to power during the tumultuous ride of Russia's transition from communism to the free market.
The environment was one in which he often seemed more at risk from the bullet or the bottle than from his bad heart. But Mr Yeltsin is doing remarkably well by Russian standards. He has already survived seven years beyond the average life expectancy of a Russian male, which is 58 - in other words, most men in Russia do not live to draw a pension. American males, by contrast, can expect to live to 72.
Medical experts are uncertain over precisely why the figure for Russian men has dropped so low, plummeting from 65 in 1991, and placing the country in the same league as India, Yemen and Egypt. Although the average age of death has picked up slightly - it was 57 in 1994 - Russia was the first country in history to experience such an abrupt decline.
The change has been dramatic. In 1993, 322,000 more Russians died than in 1992, an increase greater than total American losses during the second World War. Even during Stalin's bloody rule Soviet life expectancy rose from 44 to 62. By the late 1950s it was actually higher than the US, at 69.
But there are plenty of contributing factors. Poverty, homelessness, disease, violence and suicides have grown with the unravelling of Russia's cent rally planned economy, which has yet to recover from the tailspin it suffered after the collapse of communism. Figures released by the Russian government on Saturday showed that 30 million people were below the poverty line - a fifth of the population.
Half the country is forced to rely on sub standard water supplies, polluted with a range of deadly substances from fertiliser, pesticides and radioactive waste to oil. According to a report by a congress of Russian physicians held late last year, air pollution in 184 of the country's cities is more than 10 times the maximum permitted level.
Measles, diphtheria, tuberculosis, hepatitis, whooping cough, dysentery and even cholera have been spreading fast, no longer checked by the USSR's dependable health service.
These days many Russians cannot afford to buy medicines, most of which are costly imports, as their own pharmaceutical production has plummeted.
This is one reason why doctors estimate that those who contract TB are 17 times more likely to die from it than Americans.
Poverty has helped send cardiovascular disease to epidemic proportions, not least because Russians have a fat drenched diet, dominated by sausage and margarine products. They eat only a third as much fruit as their American counterparts, and often take no exercise, especially during the winter.
And then there is drink. Russia's men - whose life expectancy is 13 years lower than that of its women - are the world's heaviest boozers, consuming an average of a quarter of a litre of vodka every day. Directly or indirectly, alcohol plays a part in the deaths of some 100,000 people a year.
But Russia's catastrophe may not be entirely to do with the ills of the present. "These processes began more than 20 years ago. I don't think we should blame the present politicians without taking a closer look at the past," said Dr Viktor Mitkov, a health analyst.
Scientists are now looking back to Soviet times, to see if a long history of environmental abuse - from dumping radioactive waste to building chemical plants which spew toxic waste into the air and water supplies - is now coming home to roost.
According to Russia's central bank, the 148 million population could shrink by up to 12 million over the next decade.