November 25, 1999
Web posted at: 12:57 p.m. EST (1757 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

MOSCOW (CNN) -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin has severe bronchitis and is resting at his Gorky residence outside Moscow, a spokesman for Yeltsin told CNN.

He's receiving treatment from doctors at the Central Clinical Hospital, the Kremlin and Russian news agencies said. A brief report from the Interfax news agency cited unidentified sources in Moscow as saying the president might be hospitalized soon.

A senior aide said doctors believed the Russian leader's latest health problems could last for up to two weeks.

"The doctors say from one to two weeks, not taking into account the president's irrepressible character," Igor Shabdurasulov, the first deputy head of the Kremlin administration, told NTV television.

VIDEO CNN's Matthew Chance looks at Yeltsin's illness and concerns over his ability to govern Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     MESSAGE BOARD Russia's future

Belorussian President Alexander Lukeshenko said he was told by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that Yeltsin, 68, is suffering from a viral infection. Lukeshenko canceled a meeting with Yeltsin that had been scheduled for Friday.

The president did meet in the Kremlin on Thursday with Putin and top security officials before word of his illness was reported.

But after the meeting, "the president began to feel poorly" and went to the Central Clinical Hospital to see his doctors, Yeltsin spokesman Dmitry Yakushkin told Interfax.

Yeltsin has been ill repeatedly during his second term as president and rarely manages a full day of work in his Kremlin office. Putin handles day-to-day affairs in Yeltsin's absence.

Yeltsin has insisted that he will serve out his second term, which runs until the middle of next year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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