text: Yeltsin plans return to Kremlin for Dec 25 - speaker. MOSCOW 1996-12-06 
   Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who had heart bypass surgery a month ago, plans to return to work on December 25, the head of the upper chamber of parliament told Interfax news agency on Friday. " Today he is a mobile, energetic man with lots of colour in his cheeks, " said Yegor Stroyev who met Yeltsin, 65, on Friday at a country residence. " 
   He told me that he had lost 20 kg (44 lbs) which is natural after such an operation. " 
   December 25, a normal working day in Russia, is the fifth anniversary of Yeltsin's arrival in the Kremlin. He took over there, and took control of the red button controlling nuclear arms, in December 1991 when Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, marking the end of the Soviet Union. Yeltsin has been shown a few times on television since his quintuple bypass on November 5 but has yet to deliver any major television or radio address to the nation. Surgeon Renat Akchurin who led the operation, told Itar-Tass news agency Yeltsin was working up to four hours a day at his residence.
competitors: Yeltsin Kremlin MOSCOW Russian Boris Yeltsin Interfax Yegor Stroyev Yeltsin Russia Yeltsin Kremlin Mikhail Gorbachev Soviet Union Yeltsin Renat Akchurin Itar-Tass Yeltsin