jECREf 6603 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION SUBJECT TelephoneConversation withRussianPresident Yeltsin PARTICIP7 NTS The President President Yeltsin NOTETAKERS Jenny McGee RobertFord MichaelT Manning Roger Merletti Jim Smith Andrew Weiss INTERPRETER Kyrill Borissow DATE TIME AND PLACE September 8 1999 11 42 a m ­ 12 21 p m OEOB The President Hello Boris U President Yeltsin How are you Bill U The President I'mfine It's good to hear your voice U President Yeltsin I am also fine except forinternational relations We cannot as yet agree fundamentally on the Russian­U S relationship Certainly after our meetingin Cologne a lothas been achieved We have moved ahead on START ABM and have done several thingsregarding regional problemsin a cooperative spirit Certainly therewill be new contacts and meetingsbetween yourself and Mr Putin chairmanof our government inAuckland New Zealand and therewill be othermeetings including withIvanov our ForeignMinister and Secretary Albright and withothers Bill I have to speak unfortunately correctly thatthe U S ­Russian relationship increasingly suffers from the fact thatpre­election campaigns are in progressin our two countries I believe it is our task yours and mine to try our best to protect and limit interference in our relationship from attemptsto playout political domestic cards and intrigues There are some who even tryto think of usingthese in orderto affect international relationships I am sure thatyou and I will continue to be above those attempts made in thisarea and we'll deal with ­SEGRE ' Classified by RobertA Bradtke Reason 1 5 d Declassify On 11 19 09 DECLASSIFIED PER E 0 13526 t 78X-n-i 0 S Z Xo s KBH thisissuein the spirit of cooperation in orderto counter such intrigues or rebuff these challenges tsT In thisconnection as always I will be direct and will statemy deep concernover reports in the mass media that therewere some attemptsto laundermoney throughthe Bank of New York withRussianparticipation This scandalhas a clearpolitical underpinning and motive We need to jointly and quietly sortit out without heating up thesepassions Our Interior Minister has agreed withthe Director of the FBI thaton 13 September we will send a high­ranking delegation to Washingtonto lookintothatmatter and that delegation will include representatives of the Foreign Intelligence Service the Minister of the Interior and the Tax Police So now we must letthem jointly lookintothe matter and subsequently we will work out further initiatives Now forthe fourth question on my agenda I am aware that in the U S concernhas been expressedregarding the Russianbill beingput together to countermoney laundering There isno ground forconcernhere There is a need to countercorruption in Russia Unfortunately our Federal Assembly has adopteda not quitesatisfactory law on this score which I had to reject Severalarticles directly contradict constitutional provisions of the Russian Federation and its international trading commitments After all these contradictions are sortedout and amended I will necessarily endorsethis very important bill I believe the issuesregarding security and disarmament deservecloseattention Itis important forthe two of us thisfall to tryto ratify the START IITreaty which would significantly helpwiththe START III Treatyand alsothe ABM Treaty You understand thatthereisnot much progress in this area You may recall on several occasionsthatI tried to make argumentsthatwe need to shore up START III which would be helpful regarding the ratification of START II I will be frankwithyou again I know the situation fully wellregarding ideas in the U S to fundamentally undermine the ABM Treaty This concernof mine is sharedby other countries including China France and others As of yet I have not received any reaction to my initiative in Cologne about setting up a global missile system formonitoring missile technologies and I think thatit would be helpful withrespectto START and ABM if you did so Shortly in the next few days you will have a meetingwith Mr Putin Briefly at thistime I would like to tell you about him so you will know what kindof man he is Ittook me a lotof time to think who mightbe the next Russian president in the year 2000 Unfortunately at thattime I couldnot findany sitting candidate Finally I came acrosshim thatis Putin and I explored hisbio his interests his acquaintances and so on and so forth I found out he is a solid man who is kept wellabreastof various subjects under hispurview At the same time he is thoroughand strong very sociable And he can easily have good relations and contact withpeoplewho are hispartners I am sure you will findhim to be a highly qualified partner I am verymuch convincedthathe will be supported as a candidate in the year 2000 We are workingon it accordingly Now the question of Chechnya and Dagestan That is like a dessertin our conversation last but not least It has increasingly become the international centerof terrorism Billions and billions of dollars are thrownto it from different partsof the world We can no longerbe impatient withthatsituation We have to respondafter what theydid in Dagestan We had to counterthose terrorist activities and we threwthem out of thatterritory What they are doingnow is again and again trying to collect money and arms to preparemercenaries in special training camps in Pakistan Saudi Arabia and otherplaces We are talking about mercenaries murderers and killers Yesterday we had a meetingof our Councilof Defense where we decidedto givethem a very strongrebuffing This is not about war This ismerelyan opportunity to withdraw thosebanditsfrom our territory I want you to supportus morally alsopolitically Obviously we will appeal to the UN sincewe want to put an end to Chechen terrorism I am wellinformedregarding your stateof affairs and understand everything ismoving smoothly and I'mhappy to know that I am finished Bill and am all ears The President First of all Boris I want to thank you This has been forme a veryhelpful review I do support your efforts to standup against terrorism in Dagestan and will continue to cooperatewithyou against terrorism and groups like Usama bin Ladinthattrain thesepeople I will do everything I can to help you standagainst common threats I know your biggest challenge will be to avoidhurting innocent civilians who will be caught in the crossfire You have to standagainst terrorism and you have to stand firm against the terrorists and I will supportyour efforts I still believe thatover the long run Russia will have a firmer position in Dagestan and Chechnya and withthe Muslim minorities if more can be done to resolve problemsbetween Azerbaijan and Armenia and Georgia Ifthereis anything I can do to help I will But I think we need to take away all these excuses terrorists may use isf President Yelstin That'svery good Thank you Bill U The President On the bilateral issues let me say thatI know StrobeTalbott is inMoscow talking withMamedov MadeleineisworkingwithIvanov and Cohen iswithSergeyev workingon START ABM and CFE issues I hope we will get a CFE Treatysoon We're making good progress I will work withour peopleto get START III done I'mtrying to get to the pointwhere the two of us can reach an agreementwhen the time comes and I will do everything I can to do that CSjT On the ABM Treaty our peopleobviously are talking about that I think the critical issueis to see if we can work out some way to share the benefits of any work on missile defense which we both can use in the future against rogue statesand terrorists I want to finda way to share the benefits Both our peopleare talking about this and we need to continue the process President Yeltsin Bill I believe we need to discussthis issuewhen we meet and have a one­on­one I am waiting for you to come at any time you findconvenient XT The President Thank you I want to say a word about Kosovo I think your troopsare workingwellthere and we all are workingtogether just as I hoped If we keep workingthere we will have success just as we had in Bosnia President Yeltsin Yes Bill This has worked out just right U The President Yes Now on these chargesabout money laundering and corruption I agree withyou I think people are trying to make a big issueout of it Specifically what they are sayinghere is thatGore and I lost Russia because we were too closeto you and your administration That is the attack I know you have been briefed on this We have counterattacked vigorously thatthe relationship we've had is good forthe U S and forthe security of the world jB President Yeltsin That'scorrect I agree withyou The President But I think the best responseforus as always is to deal withthe issuesin a forthright way as you suggest We need to show thatwe are taking the right stepsto fight crime and corruption I think the factthe high­level team will be here next week is good The Moscow G­8 meetingon crimewill help energizeotherpartners and we've got this bilateral workinggroup on crime and corruption The news you gave me todayon the money laundering law is good news because a lotof peopleare trying to use your veto as evidencethatRussia doesn't care about thisissue So if you can get a bill and get it signedsoon thatwill help a greatdeal President Yeltsin Bill you might recall what happened last time regarding the law on religion You mightrecall againthatthatwas a very similar situation when they introduced provisions thatwent counterto the Constitution That was done deliberately in the StateDuma at the time I alsohad to veto thatbill and we have the same story again I have introduced certain changes thatwill do away withthoseprovisions thatare unconstitutional In general terms I supportthese laws And when these elementswill be cleared up I standready to signit and won'thave any otherproblemswiththislaw The President That'svery good news The onlyotherthing I wanted to say was thatwe have had good contacts with Mr Putinso far and I lookforwardto meetingwithhim in Auckland After that we will st in very closetouch I thankyou forcalling Boris President Yeltsin Thank you Bill I think this has been veryhelpful The onlythingis thatsometimes they really need to connectus promptly Otherwise we will have a one­ or two­daydelay and thatdoes not help us address the globalissues The President I agree and I'll do better withthat U President Yeltsin Very good Bill Thank you We will talk again U The President Goodbye and tell Naina I saidhello U President Yeltsin And best greetings to Hillary too Thank you U The President Thank you Goodbye U ­­End of Conversation — 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 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 Read related article Putin Clinton and Presidential Transitions 2020-11-02