    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 23 (Monday, June 12, 2000)]
    [Page 1303]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    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 a thousand 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
    Keiv, 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.