Conversations between Yeltsin and Clinton made public today shed a new light on Russian-U.S. relations in the 1990s

Daily Ringtone
Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read

What happened

Today, Russians learned a lot of new information about their country’s history in the 1990s — Bill Clinton’s Presidential Library made public the transcripts of telephone conversations between Clinton and Russia’s first president, Boris Yeltsin which took place between 1993 and 1999. Several conversations are surprising — for example, Yeltsin’s request ahead of the 1996 Russian presidential election for a loan of $2.5 billion, because without these funds it would be difficult for him to fund his election campaign. We selected the most interesting fragments to better understand U.S.-Russia relations in the 1990s.

On NATO expansion, 1996:

Yeltsin: I want to get a clear understanding of your idea of NATO expansion because now I see nothing but humiliation for Russia if you proceed. How do you think it looks to us if one bloc continues to exist while the Warsaw Pact has been abolished? 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? We need a new structure for Pan-European security, not old ones!

On Crimea, 1996

Yeltsin: There is a U.S. press campaign suggesting that people should not be afraid of the communists; that they are good, honorable and kind people. I warn people not to believe this. More than half of them are fanatics; they would destroy everything. It would mean civil war. They would abolish the boundaries between the republics (of the former Soviet Union). They want to take back Crimea; they even make claims against Alaska.

On the Russian presidential election, 1996

Yeltsin: And I have another question. Bill. Please understand me correctly. Bill, for my election campaign, I urgently need for Russia a loan of $2.5 billion.

Clinton: Let me ask this: didn’t it help you a lot when the Paris Club rescheduled Russia’s debt? I thought that would have caused several billions of dollars to flow into your country.

Yeltsin: No. It will be coming in the second half of the year. And in the first half of the year, we will only have $300 million due to conditions set by the IMF. <…> But the problem is I need money to pay pensions and wages. Without resolving this matter of pensions and wages, it will be very difficult to go into the election campaign. You know, if we could resolve this subject in a way with [IMF] providing the $2.5 billion in the first half, we could perhaps manage.

On the bombing of Yugoslavia, 1999

Clinton: I know you are aware already that Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroeder and the rest of the Europeans have decided we have to launch airstrikes against military targets in Serbia soon. <…> I know that you oppose what we are doing, but I want you to know that I am determined to do whatever I can to keep our disagreement on this from ruining everything else we have done and can do together in the coming years.

Yeltsin: I’m afraid we shall not succeed in that. If you do that [unintelligible] our side very much. Because what was needed to have begun were political discussions again and again and again, instead of bombing and destroying people.

On Vladimir Putin, 1999

Yeltsin: It took me a lot of time to think who might be the next Russian president in the year 2000. Unfortunately, at that time, I could not find any sitting candidate. Finally, I came across him, that is, Putin, and I explored his bio, his interests, his acquaintances, and so on and so forth. I found out he is a solid man who is kept well abreast of various subjects under his purview. At the same time, he is thorough and strong, very sociable. And he can easily have good relations and contact with people who are his partners. I am sure you will find him to be a highly qualified partner. I am very much convinced that he will be supported as a candidate in the year 2000. We are working on it accordingly.

Clinton: Who will win the election?

Yeltsin: Putin, of course. He will be the successor to Boris Yeltsin. He’s a democrat, and he knows the West.

Clinton: He’s very smart.

Yeltsin: He’s tough. He has an internal ramrod. He’s tough internally, and I will do everything possible for him to win — legally, of course. And he will win. 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.

Why the world should care

American “Russia” experts have long debated: where did the U.S. go wrong in its relationship with Russia in the 1990s, and could the U.S. have prevented the rise of an autocratic regime in Russia and the subsequent conflict between Russia and the West? The publication of Yeltsin and Clinton’s conversations will likely revive these discussions.

Peter Mironenko

This newsletter is made with the support of the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley.

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