Even they cannot tame his manic approach to work.He is the polar opposite to the five-hours-a-day-and-not-a-second-longer Ronald Reagan. He operates like an undergraduate who does nothing until the day before finals, and then launches into an all-night cramming session before collapsing in exhaustion. When coronary trouble put him out of action in late 1995, he bounded back with a whirlwind election campaign the following year. He was proud of his breakneck approach, boasting of getting up at 5am every day and working well into the night. Until, that is, he had another heart attack and disappeared again.After his quintuple coronary bypass in November, he returned, only to be sidelined by double pneumonia in January.

Then he came roaring back once more, grabbing back power and limelight from his minions, whom he dominates by a policy of divide-and-rule. Although he looked much older than his 66 years, no one – but no one – imagined he would display such energy.Another motive must also be factored in. Boris Yeltsin is thinking about his place in history, a legacy complicated by his indefensible role in the Chechen war, which he regards as his worst mistake and which will be seen as an eternal blemish on his record by many. Russian law (though ambiguous in Mr Yeltsin’s case) only allows a president two terms; he has said several times that this is the final stretch, although in reality he probably has yet to make his mind up. If he does step down, time is running short to set the record straight.He is also doubtless eager – for sound political reasons – to ensure Russia slips no further down the global pecking order, a perception reinforced by what is seen here as Nato’s over-hasty expansion into the east. Thus the rejoicing in Moscow when Russia brokered a deal with Iraq, averting the crisis over UN weapons inspectors Thus, too, his packed foreign diary. In the past three months, there have been meetings with Tony Blair, Helmut Kohl, Jacques Chirac, the Japanese prime minister, Ryutaro Hashimoto, China’s Jiang Zemin and others.Add to that a domestic political crisis involving accusations of corruption against his right-hand man, Anatoly Chubais, and the plethora of other Russian problems – a coal mine explosion, an air crash, millions of unpaid workers and pensioners, a nosediving stock market – and there’s little wonder that he looks exhausted.So what can we expect now? This could, of course, be it: Moscow was seething with rumours at the weekend about Mr Yeltsin’s health Just as likely, though, is more of the same.

Boris drops out of sight for Christmas and the New Year, then, just as we are wondering what is happening, he bounds back, only to crash in a heap six months later. Which is why you have to ask the question: what the hell is wrong with the man?. No Waterfront dacha would be complete without one: a luxury motor cruiser for those lazy summer holidays, or for entertaining one’s rich and powerful guests. In a post-Soviet Russia where for a few at any rate, there is big money to be made, they are not so unusual – and certainly the President of the Republic did not want to miss out.