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Clinton-Yeltsin papers show 1990s 'equal partnership' for what it really was 'Smart' Putin & election loans: 5 must-read Clinton-Yeltsin exchanges released
(about 9 hours later)
Almost 600 pages of transcripts from meetings and phone calls between US President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin paint a picture of a time when the West liked Russia because Moscow did what it was told. Election influence, NATO expansion and Vladimir Putin were just some of the hot button topics discussed twenty years ago by US President Bill Clinton and Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, newly released transcripts reveal.
“You have guided your country through a historic time and you are leaving a legacy that will leave Russians better off for years to come,” Clinton told Yeltsin in a phone call on December 31, 1999, the day the Russian leader announced his surprise resignation. Nearly 600 pages of memos and transcripts, documenting dozens of personal exchanges and telephone conversations between Clinton and Yeltsin, were made public by the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas last month.
“I know that the democratic changes you led made it possible for Russia to be integrated into the international community,” Clinton continued, adding that historians will call Yeltsin “the father of Russian democracy” who worked to “make the world a safer place.” Although dating from January 1993 to December 1999, many of the documents touch upon issues that now dominate the news cycle, providing often overlooked historical perspective and context to the current state of US-Russia relations.
The Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas released the memos of 18 personal conversations and 56 telephone conversations between Clinton and Yeltsin last month, though the publication had gone largely unnoticed until Thursday. The documents span the time between January 1993, when the US president took office, and the Russian president’s resignation in December 1999. They also show a relationship that Clinton pitched to Yeltsin as a “cooperative equal partnership” between the US and Russia, but one which largely consisted of the US leader issuing demands and Yeltsin obediently carrying them out. Clinton sends 'his people' to get Yeltsin elected
That is not to say that the Russian leader would not make requests of his US counterpart. Yeltsin asked for a lot of things, from support in the 1996 Russian presidential election to promises that NATO expansion would not include former Soviet republics. Clinton refused any sort of “gentleman’s agreement” on NATO expansion, and told Yeltsin he had to push for enlargement because of domestic politics. Republicans, he said, were using the issue to win support among Americans of Eastern European descent in the midwest. Amid unceasing allegations of nefarious Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election, the Clinton-Yeltsin exchanges reveal how the US government threw its full weight behind Boris – in Russian parliamentary elections as well as for the 1996 reelection campaign, which he approached with 1-digit ratings.
For example, a transcript from 1993 details how Clinton offered to help Yeltsin in upcoming parliamentary elections by selectively using US foreign aid to shore up support for the Russian leader's political allies.
"What is the prevailing attitude among the regional leaders? Can we do something through our aid package to send support out to the regions?" a concerned Clinton asked.
Yeltsin liked the idea, replying that "this kind of regional support would be very useful." Clinton then promised to have "his people" follow up on the plan.
In another exchange, Yeltsin asks his US counterpart for a bit of financial help ahead of the 1996 presidential election: "Bill, for my election campaign, I urgently need for Russia a loan of $2.5 billion," he said. Yeltsin added that he needed the money in order to pay pensions and government wages – obligations which, if left unfulfilled, would have likely led to his political ruin. Yeltsin also asks Clinton if he could "use his influence" to increase the size of an IMF loan to assist him during his re-election campaign.
The US leader was more forthcoming when Yeltsin’s requests had to do with keeping him in power in Moscow. In the run-up to the notorious 1996 election, Yeltsin painted a picture of apocalypse that would arise if the Communists won:
“They would destroy everything. It would be civil war,” the Russian president said in April 1996, accusing his opponents of wanting to “take back Crimea; they even make claims against Alaska.” Yeltsin questions NATO expansion
In June, Yeltsin pleaded for money. The Paris Club creditors had rescheduled Russia’s debt payments and the IMF had approved what would become a $10.2 billion loan, which would arrive later that year. The future of NATO was still an open question in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and conversations between Clinton and Yeltsin provide an illuminating backdrop to the current state of the curiously offensive 'defensive alliance' (spoiler alert: it expanded right up to Russia's border).
“Bill, for my election campaign, I urgently need for Russia a loan of $2.5 billion,” he said. “I need money to pay pensions and wages.” In 1995, Yeltsin told Clinton that NATO expansion would lead to "humiliation" for Russia, noting that many Russians were fearful of the possibility that the alliance could encircle their country.
“I’ll check on this with the IMF and some of our friends and see what can be done,” responded Clinton. "It's a new form of encirclement if the one surviving Cold War bloc expands right up to the borders of Russia. Many Russians have a sense of fear. What do you want to achieve with this if Russia is your partner? They ask. I ask it too: Why do you want to do this?" Yeltsin asked Clinton.
Between the US-backed funding and a propaganda campaign managed by US consultants – which was acknowledged on the cover of TIME magazine and even made into a feature film called ‘Spinning Boris’ – Yeltsin won that election. As the documents show, Yeltsin insisted that Russia had "no claims on other countries," adding that it was "unacceptable" that the US was conducting naval drills near Crimea.
Time and again, Boris delivered for Bill – including in the spring of 1999. To silence Russia’s objections to NATO’s attack on Yugoslavia over the Serbian province of Kosovo, Clinton argued that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was a “bully” who should not be allowed to “destroy the relationship we worked hard for over six and a half years to build up.” "It is as if we were training people in Cuba. How would you feel?" Yeltsin asked. The Russian leader then proposed a "gentleman's agreement" that no former Soviet republics would join NATO.
“I’m sorry he is a Serb. I wish he were Irish or something else, but he is not,” Clinton said. Clinton refused the offer, saying: "I can't make the specific commitment you are asking for. It would violate the whole spirit of NATO. I've always tried to build you up and never undermine you."
During the 78-day NATO campaign, Yeltsin appeared to be under tremendous pressure from his surroundings, offering at one point to meet Clinton “in some hiding place… either on a boat or some submarine or some island so not a single person will disturb us.” NATO bombing of Yugoslavia turns Russia against the West
Though Yeltsin eventually gave Clinton everything he demanded on the issue of Kosovo and Yugoslavia, he did warn the US leader that the bombing would result in losing the hearts and minds of Russians. Although Clinton and Yeltsin enjoyed friendly relations, NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia tempered Moscow's enthusiastic partnership with the West.
“Our people will certainly from now have a bad attitude with regard to America and with NATO,” the Russian president told Clinton in March 1999. “I remember how difficult it was for me to try and turn the heads of our people, the heads of the politicians towards the West, towards the United States, but I succeeded in doing that, and now to lose all that.” "Our people will certainly from now have a bad attitude with regard to America and with NATO," the Russian president told Clinton in March 1999. "I remember how difficult it was for me to try and turn the heads of our people, the heads of the politicians towards the West, towards the United States, but I succeeded in doing that, and now to lose all that."
Later that year, Yeltsin told Clinton he had found a designated successor: Vladimir Putin. He introduced Putin to Clinton as “a solid man” in September 1999, adding: “I am sure you will find him to be a highly qualified partner.” Yeltsin urged Clinton to renounce the strikes, for the sake of "our relationship" and "peace in Europe."
Putin is “a democrat, and he knows the West,” Yeltsin told Clinton in Istanbul in November, the last time the two leaders met. “You’ll do business together. He will continue the Yeltsin line on democracy and economics and widen Russia’s contacts. He has the energy and the brains to succeed.” "It is not known who will come after us and it is not known what will be the road of future developments in strategic nuclear weapons," Yeltsin reminded his US counterpart.
During that summit, Yeltsin also appealed to Clinton to “just give Europe to Russia. The US is not in Europe. Europe should be the business of Europeans. Russia is half European and half Asian… Bill, I’m serious. Give Europe to Europe itself.” But Clinton wouldn't cede ground.
Clinton politely ignored Yeltsin’s rant. After all, here was a man who for almost seven years did everything he was told. Under Yeltsin, Russia was bankrupt, weak, unable to stop the US from enjoying its “unipolar moment” that scholars like Francis Fukuyama described as “the end of history” – and Putin would continue along the same path. Wouldn’t he? "Milosevic is still a communist dictator and he would like to destroy the alliance that Russia has built up with the US and Europe and essentially destroy the whole movement of your region toward democracy and go back to ethnic alliances. We cannot allow him to dictate our future," Clinton told Yeltsin.
Nebojsa Malic for RT Yeltsin asks US to 'give Europe to Russia'
One exchange that has been making the rounds on Twitter appears to show Yeltsin requesting that Europe be "given" to Russia during a meeting in Istanbul in 1999. However, it's not quite what it seems.
"I ask you one thing," Yeltsin says, addressing Clinton. "Just give Europe to Russia. The US is not in Europe. Europe should be in the business of Europeans."
However, the request is slightly less sinister than it sounds when put into context: The two leaders were discussing missile defense, and Yeltsin was arguing that Russia – not the US – would be a more suitable guarantor of Europe's security.
"We have the power in Russia to protect all of Europe, including those with missiles," Yeltsin told Clinton.
Clinton on Putin: 'He's very smart'
Perhaps one of the most interesting exchanges takes place when Yeltsin announces to Clinton his successor, Vladimir Putin.
In a conversation with Clinton from September 1999, Yeltsin describes Putin as "a solid man," adding: "I am sure you will find him to be a highly qualified partner."
A month later, Clinton asks Yeltsin who will win the Russian presidential election.
"Putin, of course. He will be the successor to Boris Yeltsin. He's a democrat, and he knows the West."
"He's very smart," Clinton remarks.
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