POLICE vehicles have sealed off approaches to the Moscow Cardiological Centre where President Yeltsin's open heart surgery is likely to take place, and bus loads of police have arrived on the scene, indicating that the operation is imminent.
The pioneering US heart surgeon, Dr Michael DeBakey, arrived in Moscow yesterday from Amsterdam and was whisked away from the attentions of the international media at Sheremetyevo airport.
The clinic was cordoned off after reports that Western TV companies were about to set up satellite stations nearby and point cameras at the windows of the operating theatre.
Official information on Mr Yeltsin's condition has improved in recent weeks but there is still an element of secrecy concerning the date. Dr DeBakey has criticised this and has said he cannot be specific about when the operation will take place because of restrictions placed on him by the Russian authorities.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he said he had been informed that the secretiveness stemmed from Mr Yeltsin's daughter, Ms Tatyana Dyachenko, who has been accused by the political opposition of running the country with the Kremlin chief of staff, Mr Anatoly Chubais, during Mr Yeltsin's illness.
"It's stupid to think you can keep this secret. It's so much better to be open, honest and truthful," Mr DeBakey told the Tines,
Three other US doctors - a haematologist, a pathologist and a cardiovascular surgeon - will be in Moscow for the occasion, but neither they nor Dr DeBakey are expected to take part in the operation which will be performed by the Moscow based surgeon, Dr Renat Akcburin.
A consultation between the local and visiting surgeons is expected to take place today, following which the date and time of the operation will be fixed. Dr DeBakey has suggested Wednesday or Thursday as likely dates.
Thursday is a national holiday in Russia marking the 79th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution and commentators here have noted that it would be ironic in the extreme if surgery on the President, a former communist turned anti communist, were to take place on that date.
In a television broadcast on Saturday, Mr Yeltsin's wife, Mrs Naina Yeltsina, said Mr Yeltsin was in good form mentally although naturally somewhat apprehensive about the operation.
Mr Yeltsin suffers from ischaemia, a condition which limits the flow of blood to the heart, and has suffered three heart attacks in 15 months, the last one between the first and second rounds of the presidential elections this summer.
