'Drunk Boris Yeltsin tried to hail taxi outside White House in underpants'

Boris Yeltsin got so drunk during a presidential visit to Washington that he was found standing outside the White House in his underpants, trying to hail a taxi so he could go out for a pizza.

BILL CLINTON BORIS YELTSIN: 'Drunk Boris Yeltsin tried to hail taxi outside White House in underpants'
Mr Yeltsin, (L), was discovered standing alone and barely clothed on Pennsylvania Avenue Credit: Photo: AP

The following night, a guard mistook him for an intruder after the former Russian president was discovered stumbling drunkenly around the basement of the official visitor's residence.

The embarrassing details about the extent of Mr Yeltsin's drinking habits have been revealed by Bill Clinton.

The former US president made the disclosures to Taylor Branch, a writer and former flatmate, whom he invited to compile a new "oral history" of the presidency based on 79 taped interviews.

Mr Clinton, who would regularly summon Mr Branch for afternoon chats during his eight-year presidency, was more coy about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, merely saying that he "just cracked" under personal and political pressure.

According to excerpts in USA Today of Branch's new book, the 707-page The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President, Mr Clinton kept the tapes of the interview hidden in his sock drawer.

Mr Branch, however, would make his own tape after each interview in which he would immediately record what Mr Clinton had told him.

Another excerpt relates how Mr Clinton had an argument with Al Gore, his vice president, shortly after the latter failed to win the presidency in 2000.

Mr Clinton complained that he could have won the election for him if he had been more involved, to which Mr Gore responded that the former president had been a "drag" on his ticket because of the Lewinsky affair.

The pair then "exploded" at each other, blaming each other for the Democratic defeat in a two-hour argument, according to the book.

Mr Yeltsin was reportedly staying at Blair House, the White House guest residence, in 1995 when the Secret Service discovered him standing alone and barely clothed on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The president, who died two years ago, told them in slurring words that he wanted a pizza, wrote Mr Branch.

The writer said it wasn't always easy to keep Mr Clinton to the point.

On one occasion, the president made them interrupt their discussion of matters of state to help his daughter, Chelsea, finish an English literature essay about Dr Frankenstein.

Mr Branch said he sent his book to Mr Clinton to proof-read but he did not ask for any changes.