[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 77 (Wednesday, May 10, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6425-S6426]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 PRESIDENT CLINTON BRINGS HOME NOTHING

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, President Clinton has gone to Moscow, 
and he has come home with nothing. I repeat: President Clinton has gone 
to Moscow, and he has come home with nothing.
  There has not been much coverage yet of the summit over there in 
Russia, but it is pretty clear that President Clinton has in effect 
gone to Moscow, given President Yeltsin an opportunity to show that he 
can deliver the President of the United States for a celebration of the 
end of World War II, and we have had no progress on stopping the sale 
of nuclear material to Iran, no apologies about the slaughter of 25,000 
people in Chechnya.
  In summary, Mr. President, very little, if anything, has been 
accomplished at this summit that would benefit this country.
  Now, arguably, our President showing up over there has helped 
President 
 [[Page S6426]] Yeltsin and the Russians, but typically we think of 
these summits as producing something beneficial for our side. It does 
not seem to me there has been one single step in the direction that we 
would like to see us go as a result of this summit.
  The issue, of course, is not whether we have a relationship with 
Russia. We all want to have a relationship with Russia. The question 
is, What kind of relationship is it going to be?
  During the past 2 years, we have seen a real change in the makeup of 
President Yeltsin's inner cycle or kitchen cabinet. He has fired 
reformers and replaced them with hard-line reactionary advisers who are 
suspicious of free market reforms and suspicious of democracy. Some 
observers have said there is only one reformer left in the cabinet and 
he is the one they sent over here to the United States to talk to 
people in the Senate.
  In a recent hearing, I asked Deputy Secretary Talbott to identify a 
single voice of reason in the kitchen cabinet; just one. Secretary 
Talbott changed the subject.
  Yeltsin's decisions are making it very difficult to sustain support 
for assistance to Russia.
  In February, Secretary Christopher said the President would not go to 
Moscow for a summit if Chechnya were unresolved. Well, the President is 
there and Chechnya is unresolved. Almost as soon as that line was drawn 
in the sand by President Clinton, he backed down.
  Current Russian policy test United States interests and principles. 
In fact, current Russian policy makes no sense at all, Mr. President.
  In Chechnya, basic principles of democracy and human rights are under 
siege. It really begs the question: Does a democratic government turn 
its guns on its civilians, killing 25,000 men, women, and children?
  Preliminary indications are we have accepted Yeltsin's determination 
that this is basically an internal matter and is none of our business. 
Essentially, that is what President Yeltsin said: ``This is our affair. 
You butt out, President Clinton.''
  Both our security interests and our allies are threatened by the 
pending sale of nuclear technology to Iran. The biggest current issue 
between ourselves and the Russians is the pending sale of nuclear 
technology to Iran. And the President has said earlier in the year he 
would not go to Moscow for this celebration of V-E Day unless there was 
progress on that issue. Well, there has been no progress. The nuclear 
sale continues to go forward.
  This agreement that the administration has announced that there will 
be no sale of the centrifuge technology is simply not adequate. That is 
a figleaf to allow President Clinton to claim somehow that progress was 
made on deterring the nuclear transfer to Iran when, in fact, no real 
progress has been made.
  In addition to that, Mr. President, nothing has changed on the issue 
of NATO expansion and other European security questions. Everyone was 
surprised by the Russian reversal last December when Yeltsin and 
Kozyrev denounced NATO plans to enlarge itself and rejected the 
Partnership for Peace program. Combined with recent statements that 
Moscow has the right to use force to protect Russian minorities in the 
Soviet Republics, leaders across the region are justifiably concerned. 
It should have been essential for the summit to produce a concrete 
commitment by Yeltsin to respect the political, economic and 
territorial sovereignty of those countries that used to make up the 
Soviet Union.
  In summary, Mr. President, what is going on here is the Russians are 
saying, ``We don't want you to expand NATO. And, oh, by the way, all 
the countries that we used to dominate, that used to be part of the 
Soviet Union, are our business and none of yours.''
  No progress has been made at this summit on any of these issues; not 
a single shred of evidence of any progress whatsoever on any of these 
issues.
  Mr. President, I, like many Members of the Senate, want to get along 
with the Russians. Obviously, we have a better relationship than we did 
during the cold war, but some days I wonder where this relationship is 
going. It seems to me, by pursuing this Moscow myopia, this view that 
whatever Yeltsin wants Yeltsin gets, by pursuing that particular point 
of view, we stand no chance of having the opportunity to build a 
genuinely constructive relationship with the Russians.
  So let me just, in sum, Mr. President, say that I think this summit 
has been a disappointment. I am sorry that President Yeltsin has been 
unable to commit to any of the progress that we had hoped for, but 
mostly I am sorry that President Clinton chose to go. Why is he there?
  At virtually every summit in my memory, something has been brought 
back that was arguably in the interest of the United States. President 
Clinton has gone to Moscow, gone to Moscow at President Yeltsin's 
request, given President Yeltsin an opportunity to look good, made no 
progress on the nuclear sale to Iran, made no progress on the expansion 
of NATO, and comes home emptyhanded. So, by any standard, Mr. 
President, this summit is a disappointment.
  I yield the floor.

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