YELTSIN: `WE ARE PARTNERS'

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 5, 1993                   TAG: 9304050063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA                                LENGTH: Medium
YELTSIN: `WE ARE PARTNERS'
President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin pledged a "new democratic partnership" Sunday after a two-day summit in which they took each other's measure and proclaimed themselves more than satisfied.
At a joint news conference ending the talks, Clinton said, "It is the self-interest and the high duty of all the world's democracies to stand by Russia's democratic reforms in their new hour of challenge."
"We actively support reform and reformers and you in Russia," Clinton said.
Yeltsin emphasized the partnership theme as well. "We are partners and future allies," he said.
The centerpiece of the economic partnership is the $1.6 billion U.S. aid package detailed Sunday, with most of it in food aid and credits using money from accounts Congress had already approved.
Clinton and Yeltsin described the difference from prior packages as primarily its visibility to Russians and immediate implementation.
The aid's concentration on food, housing and small business is supposed to make it immediately visible to hard-pressed Russians, who complain that past Western aid promises have not materialized.
In language aimed at helping their counterparts at home, Yeltsin praised Clinton's "seriousness," as if to tell Americans that their president, inexperienced on the world stage, was up to the challenge, while Clinton praised Yeltsin's "fighting spirit" and called American aid "an investment" to thwart Russian critics who label Yeltsin a captive of American charity.
Sunday's package is part of an international effort in which all the Group of Seven major industrialized democracies are to announce individual aid packages before their finance and foreign ministers meet April 16 to take up the multinational effort. That multibillion-dollar effort is to be aimed primarily at rescheduling Russia's debts, helping to stabilize its currency if Yeltsin can get some control over Russia's Central Bank and its inflationary spiral.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB