Yeltsin Cuts Short Troubled Political Tour, Will Remain at Spa

MOSCOW —  Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin has abandoned his cross-country journey and retreated to a secluded state dacha, his advisers disclosed Wednesday, scrapping what was to have been a two-week tour of the provinces aimed at getting in touch with the people.

Yeltsin will remain at the walled, heavily guarded compound outside the southern city of Kislovodsk for the rest of his spring vacation, the official Itar-Tass news agency reported from the spa region, quoting “sources close to the president.”

The sudden change in plans--at least the third departure from the announced schedule since the trip began three days ago--stirred speculation about Yeltsin’s health.

He appeared weak and disoriented Monday during the one whistle-stop he went through with, a short visit to the city of Ryazan.

Yeltsin’s office had announced two weeks ago that he would travel across Russia by train, stopping at Ryazan, Rostov-on-Don and Kislovodsk en route to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where he would spend the last days of his vacation.

But after the highly orchestrated Ryazan visit, he left the train behind and flew with his security entourage to Kislovodsk, leaving local officials in Rostov-on-Don with their city dressed up for a presidential visit that never happened.

The sprawling spa facility where Yeltsin is staying was built for Communist Party chiefs by late Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev and is still known among Russians as “Brezhnev’s dacha.”

Presidential Press Secretary Sergei K. Medvedev, who returned to Moscow when Yeltsin opted to skip the planned provincial stumping, told journalists here that the president had no working visits Wednesday and spent the day swimming and playing tennis.

Another Yeltsin aide, Sergei V. Svistunov, likewise brushed off suggestions that the change of plans was anything more than the prerogative of a busy man taking time off work.

“He is on vacation and, naturally, free to alter the schedule of it,” Svistunov said. “This does not mean he has rejected the idea of meeting common people in the street. He may do this later.”