Boris' Boffo Summit Captures Washington

Confounding all predictions of a ho-hum summit, Boris Yeltsin swept into Washington like the virtuoso politician he is, surprising and exciting the blase capital. Russia's first democratically elected President quickly disposed of the lingering distractions of strategic-arms control and turned his attention to what matters most to him: trade and aid for Russia.

Yeltsin was surely aware that many Administration officials still tended to view him as a bumpkin and that he needed to overcome Washington's nostalgia for his sophisticated predecessor, Mikhail Gorbachev. He succeeded with a confident, bravura performance that became a personal triumph.

The first rabbit out of his hat was his agreement to cut strategic nuclear warheads on each side to between 3,000 and 3,500 -- about a third of their present levels -- over the next 10 years. The reductions are as dramatic as the way they will be carried out: both sides will abandon outright their land- based multiple-warhead ballistic missiles.

For American strategic planners, that is something akin to putting the genie back into the bottle. While the U.S. was first to place several warheads, each aimed at a different target, atop intercontinental missiles, the Soviet Union upped the ante. It built 308 giant SS-18s with 10 warheads each, which provided Moscow with what Washington tensely termed a "first-strike capability," that is, enough power to raise fears of a possible surprise attack.

Russia will now scrap its SS-18s and its highly capable SS-24s. In fact, said Yeltsin, he had already ordered the SS-18s taken off active status. The U.S. will dismantle its MX missiles and will bring its Minuteman III missiles down to one warhead apiece. The U.S. will also cut by more than half the number of warheads on submarine-based missiles.

When, along with George Bush, he announced the agreement at the White House, Yeltsin said the traditional Soviet demand for strict parity in numbers and strengths had resulted in Russia "having half its population living below the poverty line. We cannot afford it."

That issue disposed of, Yeltsin turned to the development of the Russian economy. In a speech that moved a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress to 13 standing ovations, Yeltsin denounced communism as a failure and pledged to build democracy and a market economy in Russia. "I will not go back on the reforms," he vowed. He urged Congress to pass pending legislation that will provide broad assistance for Russia, including $12 billion to support the International Monetary Fund's aid efforts.

Eager to display an openness surpassing Gorbachev's glasnost, Yeltsin surmised that a few Americans missing in action in Vietnam and earlier wars might still be somewhere on former Soviet territory. Some members of Congress suggested holding up the aid until they could investigate, but Yeltsin hurried to reassure them. "Even if one American has been detained in my country and can still be found," he promised, "I will find him." A joint Russian-U.S. commission has been set up to check on all missing military personnel on both sides.

Congressional leaders predicted the aid legislation would now move ahead. "He said everything Americans want to hear," observed Lee Hamilton, chairman of a key House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. Yeltsin and Bush then signed seven accords on economic, scientific and military cooperation. Russia was also granted most-favored-nation trading status, which reduces tariffs on Russian goods.

This is an election year, so Bush will probably have to keep public pressure on to pass the aid bill. Nevertheless, in his first official summit, Yeltsin accomplished far more than anyone had predicted. If the new nuclear accord holds firm, bilateral arms negotiations, long the meat of East-West relations, are probably now complete, making Yeltsin seem absolutely vital to the promising new shape those relations are taking. In Washington the Gorbachev image is beginning to fade.

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CREDIT: [TMFONT 1 d #666666 d {Source: Arms Control Association}]CAPTION: Strategic nuclear warheads