DATE=6/1/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / U-S RELATIONS
NUMBER=5-46424
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: President Clinton flies to Moscow Saturday for
three days of meetings with Russian President Vladimir
Putin. It will be the first state visit by a foreign
leader to the Russian capital since Mr. Putin took
office last month. In this report from Moscow,
correspondent Peter Heinlein examines the current
state of relations between the former superpower
rivals.
TEXT: Diplomatic observers are wondering whether it
will be a fresh start, or a false start. On the eve
of the Clinton/Putin summit, the consensus of expert
opinion in Moscow is that the U-S/Russia relationship
is at its lowest point since the end of the Cold War.
Many analysts, such as Dmitry Trenin of the Moscow
Carnegie Center, say that given the wide range of
irritants in the bilateral relationship, the summit
should be considered a success simply because the two
leaders are meeting.
/// TRENIN ACT ///
I believe the big thing is the fact that the
summit is being held. The fact that Russia
still figures on the U-S radar screen [i.e.,
that Russia is important to Washington]. Not as
a number-one issue, but at least as an issue.
As a country which is not "lost" by the
Washington administration.
/// END ACT ///
Carnegie Moscow Center Director Alan Rousso predicts
this three-day summit will be a false start, laced
with symbolism and grand words, but producing little
of substance. He says the Moscow/Washington
relationship has been on a steady downward slide since
Mr. Clinton's last visit, a year and a half ago, when
he lectured the Russian people on the importance of
sticking to the path of economic reform.
/// ROUSSO ACT ///
It left Russians, in my view, with a very sour
taste in their mouths about American
understanding of the Russian predicament. The
events of the ensuing year and a half didn't
help matters. The two, I would say, or three
most important events in the ensuing year and a
half [were], with the crisis in Kosovo starting
in March, 1999, the money-laundering scandal,
which led to name calling by the United States
of Russia as a criminal state or kleptocracy,
and finally the war in Chechnya.
/// END ACT ///
Veteran analyst Victor Kremenyuk, of Moscow's
U-S-A/Canada Institute, says many Russians blame the
Clinton administration's policies for much of the
country's post-Soviet decline. He says people have
come to associate the word "democracy" with a lack of
order, and "market reform" as a western term for
corruption.
/// 1ST KREMENYUK ACT ///
I'm sorry, but the general attitude of the
population at large to the United States and the
American president has changed significantly
during the last few years. The majority of
Russians do not view the United States as
friendly any more. They regard the United
States with growing concern. They feel that the
U-S is trying to exploit Russia's weakness.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Kremenyuk says the best possible outcome for the
first meeting between Presidents Clinton and Putin
would be a new spirit of bilateral cooperation, even
if it is just in the tone of the meetings.
/// 2ND KREMENYUK ACT ///
I think what would be good to expect from this
summit is a fresh start. We really need a fresh
start, because the reserve for improvement of
relations in the `90s was used -- not always in
the best way but was used. New reserves have
not appeared.
/// END ACT ///
Senior Clinton administration officials, perhaps
sensing the mood in Moscow, have tried to play down
expectations of a breakthrough on the main summit
issue, arms control. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe
Talbott, in the Russian capital for last-minute
negotiations, told reporters the meeting would be
aimed at opening a chapter in the relationship between
the two presidents, not at closing a deal.
That could be the "fresh start" observers on both
sides are hoping for, avoiding the "false start" that
could make Mr. Clinton's Russia strategy a major issue
in November's U-S presidential election.
Administration officials are feeding that hope, noting
that the two presidents are scheduled to meet three
more times before Mr. Clinton steps down next January.
(Signed)
NEB/PFH/GE/WTW
01-Jun-2000 13:54 PM EDT (01-Jun-2000 1754 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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