![[ image: width=150]](/olmedia/images/_39178_sanatorium.JPG)
![image: [ President Yeltsin appearing on TV with his Chief of Staff Valentin Yumashev ]](/olmedia/images/_39178_YELTSIN300.JPG)
"He did not have this," a spokesman said. "He simply had a cold, that's all."
Earlier in a statement the Kremlin insisted his condition was satisfactory and his temperature had returned to normal.
Mr Yeltsin is in hospital having treatment for a respiratory viral infection. The Kremlin said that if his temperature remains normal he will be able to resume walks in the fresh air over the weekend.
The denial follows a report on broadcast on an independent Moscow radio station, Moscow Echo, that Mr Yeltsin had a "severe spasm of the (blood) vessels in the brain", as well as a cold.
The source quoted by Moscow Echo said the spasm had been prompted by sharp changes in the weather and the president's general fatigue and overwork.
A Moscow heart specialist said that, even if Mr Yeltsin had suffered such a spasm, this was simply a non-medical term for a relatively common and minor ailment, causing headaches.
A Western-based heart specialist said that properly speaking a "spasm" of the brain's blood vessels was linked to migraine headaches.
Strokes, involving damage to brain tissue, are caused by a rupture or blockage of blood vessels, not simply a spasm.
The health of the 66-year-old Russian leader has been of great concern to his colleagues and political leaders around the world. He has a long history of heart disease and last year underwent quadruple bypass surgery.
![[ image: width=150]](/olmedia/images/_39178_YELTSINSTOCKHOLM.JPG)
In January this year he was admitted to hospital suffering from pneumonia, delaying his full return to the Kremlin until February.
Much of the suspicion of Russian government reports likely stemmed from Mr Yeltsin's recent performance at a Swedish summit.
There, Mr Yeltsin seemed distracted and confused. He suggested that Russia was going to unilaterally get rid of 30% of its nuclear weapons and he said, wrongly, that Germany and Japan were nuclear powers.
Yeltsin's health record
(12 Dec 97 | World)
Yeltsin in satisfactory condition
(12 Dec 97 | World)
Yeltsin "on the mend", doctors say
(12 Dec 97 | World)
Yeltsin goes on TV to dispel health fears
(11 Dec 97 | World)
Russia: How sick is Boris?
(11 Dec 97 | World)
Yeltsin's illness: Russian media watch
(11 Dec 97 | World)
Russian Government
Inter-fax News Agency
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