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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 14, 1994                   TAG: 9401140246
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Medium

YELTSIN GIVES PLEDGE

Russian President Boris Yeltsin reassured President Clinton on Thursday he will stick with his economic-reform program and played down the threat of fascism despite parliamentary elections last month in which ultranationalists scored a stunning success.

Clinton had expected to come to Moscow to celebrate the triumphs of democracy and free-market transformations. Instead, the success of militant nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky cast a long shadow over sessions whose major work has been the nitty-gritty of economic reform and whose major announcements will deal with the nuclear remnants of the Cold War.

Clinton administration officials said Yeltsin acknowledged the challenge posed by the December election and the discontent it reflected, but said he intends to "speed up" and "strengthen" his reforms and indicated key reformist members of his cabinet will stay in place.

Yeltsin told Clinton that he will seek to work with the new parliament and avoid the kind of hostility that led to October's bloody confrontation. His press secretary, Vyacheslav Kostikov, said Yeltsin warned Clinton, however, that the political situation will remain "stormy" for some time.

Today, Clinton and Yeltsin are to sign a pledge of continued support for economic reform in Russia and to join with Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk in an agreement that begins destruction of Ukraine's nuclear arsenal, the world's third largest. A U.S.-Russian agreement, mostly symbolic, to re-target long-range missiles so they are no longer aimed at each other's country was also put in final form Thursday night, officials said.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher expressed the administration's satisfaction after the first set of meetings between the two leaders. "It is reassuring to be back here in the presence of the Russian leaders and find them undeterred by any events, indeed redoubling their efforts to move forward with the reform process" economically and politically, he said.

Yeltsin's declaration that he intends to retain Yegor Gaidar, finance chief, and Anatoly Chubais, the head of privatization, in his government was significant because the two ministers have been architects of the program of free-market economic reforms that has come to be known by Russians as "shock therapy." Pro-reform officials had expressed fears that the program would be abandoned.

by CNB