Yeltsin's daughter picks London for baby's birth

She was the most influential woman in Russia; the daughter of Boris Yeltsin could do whatever she wanted.

But, when it came to choosing where to have her baby - her third to three different fathers - Tatyana Dyachenko is the latest in a line of wealthy women from the former Soviet bloc opting to come to London rather than risk the vagaries of their own health care system.

The choice of London is no surprise: dozens of leading Russian women are opting to make the three-and-a-half hour flight from Moscow in order to have their children born in Britain.

In the vodka-soaked final years of her father's rule, Tatyana, now 41, was one of Yeltsin's official advisers in the Kremlin who had to be consulted before any big decision was made.

Insiders say it was only after consulting her that Yeltsin stood down as Russian president. She was the one who encouraged him to hand his crown to Vladimir Putin, a man she trusted to keep the Yeltsins in the style to which they had become accustomed.

Tatyana is following in the steps of Polina, daughter of Valentin Yumashev, Tatyana's third husband and former Yeltsin aide, speechwriter and biographer. Polina gave birth in London last year.

Many others have opted for the privacy and secrecy of London's top clinics including leading Russian pop star Kristina Orbakaite. "It's rare now that I have a week when at least one of my patients is not from the former Soviet Union," said a senior London gynaecologist. "They're not on the NHS, of course, and money is no object to these women. They want the quality of care and privacy that we offer."

While there is no right of citizenship for most babies born to Russians in London, there can be if one of the parents is entitled to indefinite leave to remain in Britain or is already a British subject.

Others using London's prestigious facilities include the wives of underworld leaders, some of whom have little trouble in gaining British visas.

The contrast with the maternity treatment ordinary Russians receive at state clinics in Moscow could hardly be more stark. Grim factory-line institutions are stuck in a Stalinist timewarp circa 1950: women are admitted at least a week before their expected delivery and fathers are seen as an unnecessary encumbrance and banned from the building.

While more modern private clinics are appearing, women like Tatyana and Polina aren't ready to trust them.

Tatyana would have no trouble getting access to the famous Kremlin clinic, from where her father often ruled Russia during his treatment for heart and drinking problems, as well as endless "colds". Yet, evidently, she prefers London. Moscow sources say she will either use the exclusive Portland Clinic or a private ward at Hammersmith Hospital.

She has long favoured Britain. Her son Boris Yeltsin Jnr, 20, was a pupil at Millfield in Somerset before moving to Winchester College.

Her current rich husband Yumashev was seen as a pivotal figure in The Family - a group that included the immediate Yeltsin clan but also a string of top aides and tycoons - before he wed Tatyana last year. This followed her divorce from businessman Leonid (Aleksei) Dyachenko, with whom she had one child.

Since then, their wedding and Polina's to aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska, shows The Family is faring well despite Russia's regime changes.

Allegations of corruption against The Family, dismissed as smears by Tatyana, have largely faded, although a close friend of Boris Yeltsin, Pavel Borodin, was found guilty of moneylaundering by a Swiss court over deals involving Kremlin refurbishment.