The First Six Months of Clinton-Russian Relations:
Summits with Yeltsin at Vancouver and Tokyo, 1993 |
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Washington, D.C., June 5, 2023 – Declassified highest-level records from the first six months of the Clinton administration’s relations with the Russian Federation in 1993 reveal a remarkable array of cooperative diplomatic initiatives and Bill Clinton’s direct personal support for Boris Yeltsin in the latter’s growing conflict with his own elected parliament over radical economic reforms known as “shock therapy.” The documents include verbatim transcripts of the first two face-to-face presidential meetings, in Vancouver, Canada, in April 1993, and at the G-7 meeting in Tokyo in July 1993, together with records of telephone conversations between the two leaders in February, April and June. The April conversation came just after the Russian leader prevailed in a snap referendum endorsing his leadership and his call for new parliamentary elections. Clinton called to tell the Russian leader, “I want you to know that we’re in this with you for the long haul.” The documents also include key policy memos prepared for Clinton ahead of the Vancouver summit meeting by national security adviser Tony Lake, Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Secretary of Defense Les Aspin. The latter argued for a “real partnership between our two defense establishments at all levels,” including “intense personal engagement” and even “bonding.” If the U.S. failed, Aspin wrote, the Russian military “will go over to the other side in the ongoing Russian revolution.” These records are early highlights from the forthcoming document collection: US-Russian Relations from the End of the Soviet Union to the Rise of Vladimir Putin, the latest installment in the award-winning Digital National Security Archive series published by ProQuest. Together, these documents provide historical context to the statement last week in Helsinki by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his speech about Russia’s strategic failure in Ukraine: “At the peaceful end of the Cold War, we shared the hope that Russia would emerge to a brighter future, free and open, fully integrated with the world. For more than 30 years, we worked to pursue stable and cooperative relations with Moscow, because we believed that a peaceful, secure, and prosperous Russia is in America’s interests—indeed, in the interests of the world. We still believe that today.” |
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