[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
[June 5, 2000]
[Page 1099]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters Aboard Air Force One
June 5, 2000

Sightseeing

    The President.  Did you guys go see Lenin?
    Q.  We tried; we couldn't get in.
    The President.  I'll tell you something, if you've never been to 
Kiev and you have time while we're there--if you don't all have to cover 
me all the time, when we're just having meetings and stuff--you should 
go to the monastery, all these beautiful buildings where they have all 
the historical treasures of Ukraine, all these--these metal artifacts 
going back over 1,000 years, fabulous stuff--2,000, 3,000 years.
    And underground--they have this underground network of tunnels that 
the priests still run. And the tunnels are perfectly preserved 
atmospherically, and there are mummies there where the priests have been 
buried for 500, 600, 700 years, and they're like that, and you can see 
the skin on their hands, just like Lenin, except not treated. No, no, 
they were just buried there. It is the most astonishing thing.
    Remember how that Peruvian--wasn't it a Peruvian girl--looked when 
they found her after 500 years in the ice?
    Q.  Yes.
    The President.  That's the way the atmosphere is. And you're walking 
through these tunnels, and you just come up and there's a little grave. 
They just cut a thing into the tunnel and they lay the priests there. I 
mean, there they are. It is the most astonishing thing. Who did it? 
Weren't you amazed? Weren't they all buried 500, 600, 700 years ago?
    Q.  Yes.
    The President.  And you hold the little candle down there. And the 
atmosphere is stunning. But like a group of you, if you can, whatever, 
swap off--because a lot of this stuff is just meetings, until we do the 
rally; there's no press conference or anything--as many of you as can be 
spared. There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world that I'm 
aware of.
    Q.  Would you write a note for our bosses? [Laughter]

Former President Boris Yeltsin of Russia

    The President.  Yes, I'll give you an excused absence. But no 
kidding, if there is any way any of you can go, you should go. It is a 
truly extraordinary thing. It's amazing.
    Yeltsin looked good today.
    Q.  Did he?
    The President.  Yes. He's in good spirits, happy. He's got a 
beautiful place.
    Q.  Which spirits, exactly?
    The President.  No spirits. [Laughter] He and his wife and his daughter were 
there. We all just had a nice visit. It was like old times. But he's in 
good shape.

 Note:  The exchange began at 2:17 p.m. en route from Moscow, Russia, to 
Kiev, Ukraine. In his remarks, the President referred to former 
President Yeltsin's wife, Naina, and his daughter, Tatyana Dyachenko. A 
tape was not available for verification of the content of this exchange.