Yeltsin Shown on TV at Home, Receives PutinBoris Yeltsin received a visit from his successor on Monday, and Russian television showed the first pictures of the former Russian president since a six-week hospital stay that sparked rumors he was near death.Yeltsin left a Moscow hospital on Sunday, after being confined with an acute viral infection and pneumonia since the end of January. His prolonged hospital stay had sparked speculation that his health had seriously declined, and last week aides even took the step of denying he had died. Monday's pictures, aired without sound, showed Yeltsin seated in a sweater, speaking while his wife Naina laughed. Yeltsin's protocol chief and top aide Vladimir Shevchenko was also present. A Kremlin spokesman said President Vladimir Putin had visited Yeltsin's house on Monday morning, but did not say what the two men had discussed. Putin was not shown in the television pictures. Shevchenko later told Interfax news agency that Yeltsin had taken a stroll outdoors near the house after a half-hour conversation with Putin. |
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