8% 9998 DECLASSIFIED PER ED 13526 ims- 0181 194 CH1 MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION 3 13 7433 REM SUBJECT Telcon with President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation U PARTICIPANTS The President President Yeltsin Interpreter Dmitriy Zarechnak Notetaker John Beyrle DATE TIME December 22 1993 9 10 - 9 40 am AND PLACE Oval Office The President Boris good evening It's good to hear your voice U President Yeltsin Good day Bill Yes I haven't heard your voice for a long time U The President Well you've been through a lot recently I wanted to congratulate you and the Russian people on your historic elections In my public statements I tried to emphasize the positive results of the elections -- that they were free and fair that the constitution was approved and that reformers will still be by far the largest faction in the Duma U President Yeltsin That s absolutely correct U The President I know that the anti-reform vote and the success of Zhirinovskiy pose problems for you I ve just received a report of your recent public statement and I wanted to ask your thoughts on the impact of the elections in Russia Will the reform parties come together and be able to work effectively with your government And will the election results have an impact on your economic reforms or on Russian foreign policy President Yeltsin Bill thanks for your attention to all of this You see there are two different types of constituencies in the parliament a multiparty constituency and a single seat constituency In any event the democrats will have the majority in the parliament It's a bicameral assembly And in the upper house 80 percent will be democratically minded peOple And so I'm sure that we will able to work well with this parliament especially since the working relationship is supported by a strong democratic foundation in the new constitution The President That's great I had one question regarding Zhirinovskiy For our part I think we've decided not to make Declassify on OADR Sashes 2 too much of him or build him up too much Do you agree with this -- how does he fit into your own calculations Do you agree that we should play him down I think that Vice President Gore was right to say the things he said about him but now I think we re inclined to try not to say too much about him President Yeltsin I have just held a press conference to discuss the results of the recent elections and I said we will judge Zhirinovskiy by his deeds Words are words promises are promises but we will see how he works in the new parliament and if his role and the role of his party will be a constructive one That s the criterion we will use But one thing is clear there is no room for extremism or fascism in the new parliament The President and the constitution will guard against that I believe we shouldn't pay exaggerated attention to Zhirinovskiy and his party but at the same time we must not ignore him or exclude him The President I m really looking forward to our summit in January You know that Hillary and Chelsea will be joining me in Moscow on the 14th Hillary will be pleased to see Naina again This will be an important meeting Some have questioned whether the U S and Russia can build an effective partnership I think we can convince them otherwise I wanted to highlight today three issues that I believe are critical to the success of our meeting economic assistance to support your reforms our common effort to convince Ukraine to go non-nuclear and our foreign policy agenda 98 President Yeltsin I fully agree with that We are looking forward to your arrival and are preparing a good program for that We have accepted fully the very good program that you presented but with one small adjustment I d like to suggest It is maybe not needed as Vice President Gore did to invite to a meeting all the leaders of all the parties and all factions of the new parliament -- so as not to give them an exaggerated opinion of themselves But I fully agree on the agenda you propose bilateral issues Ukraine -- a subject that gives me great concern and international affairs The President Regarding economic reform and western assistance I will give you a status report in Moscow of U S economic assistance since Vancouver The $1 6 billion package from Vancouver has been fully obligated and 71 percent of the funds have been expended The larger $2 5 billion package has been underway for two months and funds are now starting to flow U But I want to know your views on the course and pace of your economic reforms It is critical to continue those reforms You have a good team and a good reform program I understand that you may have to react to domestic pressures and that this might require some adjustments to your policies 953 We have begun a quiet study within our government of possible ways the U S and other countries could help improve IMF and SEQ-REF 4HEHEEL 3 World Bank assistance to Russia I intend to discuss these ideas with my G-7 counterparts and then to share them with you in Moscow I hope the results would help you improve the situation of average Russians and therefore to strengthen political support for you and for reform But we will do this quietly and keep your experts informed 83 President Yeltsin I thank you for the help you have provided and for your unfailing support Regarding reforms it s true that during the elections we slowed the pace down a bit but now with the elections behind us with a new Parliament the mood in our society has turned toward the economic agenda and we are again busily engaged in the reform effort We have our government in place And we still have a President and that President will not stand for elections in 1994 Under the new constitution the President will stay in office until June 1996 This means that we will continue the strong implementation of our reforms in The President Thank you I also hOpe that the summit will produce historic progress in convincing Ukraine to become a non- nuclear nation I know that you and Vice President Gore discussed this last week As a result of those talks and the talks that Strobe Talbott and Yuriy Mamedov held with the Ukrainians in Kiev we have made substantial progress in agreeing on the outlines of a deal 3 Ukraine agrees that we should resolve outstanding issues by the time of our summit So we would like to invite Deputy Foreign Minister Mamedov to Washington on January 3 for a trilateral meeting with us and the Ukrainians in order to make more progress Your meeting with President Kravchuk on Saturday will be critical in moving this forward If we can conclude this historic agreement we might even consider inviting President Kravchuk to Moscow so that the three of us can announce it together on your turf 33 President Yeltsin I ll meet Kravchuk tomorrow December 23 at the CIS summit in Ashgabat We'll talk about this and other issues and I'll propose to him that he come to Moscow during your visit so that the three of us can decide how best to finish the final agreements and put the seal of approval on a deal and possibly sign a document 20 The President That s great President Yeltsin So I'm looking forward very much to your visit and want to thank you for this call U The President Can I make one other point U President Yeltsin Please do U The President It's about our foreign policy agenda I will be in Brussels for the NATO Summit and in Prague before I see you and will want to discuss Russian participation in SEGRE see-ass Partnership for Peace proposal I also hope we can have a good discussion in restricted session of the many foreign policy issues some close to your border on our agenda I especially want to discuss this because there is substantial concern in Europe and among your neighbors that the election results will make Russia more aggressive and intrusive in their affairs 081 I hope we can agree on cooperative efforts to dispel those fears I would like to send Ambassador Jim Collins whom you know well to meet next week in Moscow with Foreign Minister Kozyrev to develop this further It will be important to allay concerns by producing concrete movement on Ukraine nuclear issues and also on the Baltics I don't know where you are on that but I think it would be a good way to demonstrate the positive changes you have already brought to Russian foreign policy 981 President Yeltsin Good -- send him We are open to this discussion We do not intend to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries When I was in Brussels I met with NATO Secretary General Woerner We discussed a plan of action for the countries of Eastern Europe to cooperate with NATO in a way that would not be at the expense of Russia and also a plan of action for Russia to join NATO So I fully agree with you and look forward to meeting with you 33 The President One last point I believe we should only invite Kravchuk to come to Moscow if we have an agreement with the Ukrainians on the nuclear issues Otherwise it might raise more questions than it answers And we have a lot of work to do on our own But if our experts can reach an agreement then we should invite him President Yeltsin I agree Thank you Bill Goodbye -- I embrace you U The President Goodbye Boris U This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu