The book reveals that Yeltsin’s drinking binge while staying at Blair House, the guest accommodation used by visiting dignitaries in 1995, almost ended in an international incident.

Mr Clinton told how he was briefed by secret service after they found Yeltsin standing outside the building dressed in his underwear trying to hail a taxi.

In a slurred speech he told the agents he wanted a pizza.

The following night he eluded his Russian bodyguards to climb out of Blair House into the basement where he was initially mistaken for an intruder.