PRESIDENT Boris Yeltsin will celebrate his 66th birthday today with his family at his residence on the outskirts of Moscow, where he is recovering from pneumonia, his spokesman said yesterday.
Mr Sergei Yastrzhembsky said "Mr Yeltsin wanted to spend his birthday with his family and "perhaps one or two friends" at his Gorky-9 residence, west of Moscow. Patriarch Alexei II of the Russian Orthodox Church might visit the President, as "has been his habit" in previous years.
The Russian Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, who is in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum in Davos, said he would rush to see Mr Yeltsin upon his return to Moscow today and would offer him flowers and a birthday gift.
The weekly Obchaya Gazeta quoted well informed sources as saying Mr Yeltsin had in recent years celebrated his birthday in a very structured fashion.
He usually arrived at the Kremlin between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and at about 10 a.m. his advisers and government officials would begin filing past him to wish him happy birthday. First would come his top adviser, followed by others and finally the Prime Minister. Each well wisher had to respect the timetable, which allowed them a maximum of 10 minutes with the President. Everyone then drank champagne.
This ritual was followed until 1994. In 1995, Mr Yeltsin spent only one hour at the Kremlin on his birthday and last year he did not show up, the report said.
It added that on his birthday, Mr Yeltsin in the past would celebrate in the evening with 25 to 30 people including his family and close friends. This year, however, the President was expected to take it easy as he is recovering from double pneumonia, and he has plans to meet President Jacques Chirac of France tomorrow.
Sidelined since his re election last July by heart disease and last, month by double pneumonia, Mr Yeltsin now rarely appears in public. Since leaving hospital after his pneumonia bout on January 20th, he has been to the Kremlin just three times, preferring to remain at one of the secluded suburban Moscow residences where he will meet Mr Chirac.
A planned visit to The Hague on Monday and Tuesday has been cancelled, and although Mr Yeltsin is still planning to hold a summit with President Clinton next month, the timing and the place remain unclear.