Yeltsin and Clinton are the leaders of two great powers, Russia and the United States, who ruled their countries throughout the 90s of the 20th century. It was a difficult time for the world at large. The Cold War, which lasted for several decades, ended with a convincing victory for America. The Soviet Union ceased to exist, after which for the Soviet and Russian citizens the United States ceased to be enemy No. 1. They no longer needed to confront, the leaders of the two states had to build relations in a new way, which over the past years were built on aggression, mutual accusations and suspicions.
President of Russia
Yeltsin and Clinton became original symbols of the decade, not only in their own countries, but throughout the rest of the world. Boris Nikolaevich came to power, proclaiming a rejection of the construction of communism, a socialist state and a planned economy. With its submission, many Russians first learned what the free market, privatization, vouchers are.
In fact, Yeltsin came to power as a result of the country's first elections of the President of the RSFSR, which took place on June 12, 1991. The vote was decided to be appointed following the results of the referendum on the introduction of the corresponding post in the RSFSR. In total, six candidates participated in the voting, but the public and experts understood that not one of them could compete with Yeltsin. All other candidates were supporters of conservative ideas or law enforcement agencies.
Presidential Election Victory
As a result, Boris Nikolaevich won a landslide victory in the first round, gaining more than 57% of the vote. The runner-up Nikolai Ryzhkov received the support of a little less than 17% of voters, Vladimir Zhirinovsky came third to finish.
Yeltsin’s reign continued until December 31, 1999, when he voluntarily resigned several hours before the New Year, having resigned. He became the only leader in Russia who decided on such a difficult step.
In 1996, Yeltsin managed to be re-elected for a second term, defeating Communist Gennady Zyuganov in the second round.
USA leader
Bill Clinton became the 42nd president in US history. Prior to that, he was elected Attorney General of Arkansas, twice became the governor of this state. He came to power a little later than Yeltsin, a little longer than the Russian president spent in the White House.
Clinton won the election on November 3, 1992. Yeltsin's future friend was to fight the incumbent head of state, George W. Bush, who was nominated by the Republican Party and was on a second term. As a result, Clinton won with 370 electoral votes, against 168 from Bush.
In 1996, he repeated this success, this time surpassing Republican candidate Bob Dole. On January 20, 2001, Clinton relinquished the chair of President George W. Bush.
First meeting
It is interesting that when he became head of state, Yeltsin held his first meeting with the American president when George Bush Sr. held this post. The leaders of the two superpowers held negotiations from January 31 to February 1, 1992 at the suburban residence of the American head of state in Camp David, near Washington.
The first meeting between Yeltsin and Clinton took place on April 3, 1993, just three months after the inauguration of the American leader. The main topic was the problems of the economy. As political scientists noted, Yeltsin emphasized that he would continue to build a market economy in Russia, he did not intend to deviate from this. The Americans in response to this promised to provide more than one and a half billion dollars for the implementation of these reforms. Clinton and Yeltsin negotiated a package of bilateral economic programs.
The meeting itself took place in Canadian Vancouver. As a result of this program, the presidents said that they confirm the Russian-American partnership, in the future they expect that its effectiveness will only grow. Other topics raised by Yeltsin and Clinton included the Korean nuclear issue, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Observers noted that already during this very first meeting, warm friendly relations were outlined between them. The US President wrote in his memoirs that he really liked Yeltsin, although he called him a big bear, full of contradictions, which stood at the helm.
In subsequent years, Bill Clinton and Yeltsin met 17 more times.
Why was Clinton laughing?
Perhaps the most memorable of all these 17 meetings was the one that took place in 1995. At a press conference following a bilateral summit, the American president could not resist breaking all the rules of good manners and decency. The videos of Clinton laughing at Yeltsin were immediately shown by television channels around the world.
Not everyone, especially in Russia, understood what had happened. The reason was a banal mistake made by the translator. Yeltsin came out of the talks extremely pleased, although earlier many media outlets, primarily the Western ones, predicted that the presidents would not be able to agree, the negotiations would fail. To everyone who did not believe in this, Yeltsin bluntly stated: "You failed."
The translator literally translated the words of the Russian president into English with the phrase to have a disaster. In slang, it means the unpleasant phrase "put in pants." Hearing this from the Russian leader, Clinton could not restrain himself and began to laugh uncontrollably. At the same time, he turned to reporters with the phrase: “I hope you will understand this correctly, ” emphasizing that he is not laughing at Yeltsin himself, as it might have seemed from the outside, but at the work of the translator.
The video in which Yeltsin and Clinton laugh is a symbol of their declarations of friendship and partnership.
Declassified data
Not so long ago new data appeared that make one doubt that it was an equal partnership, as this has been officially stated more than once at the highest level. The real media scandal was caused by declassified reports on the correspondence between Yeltsin and Clinton and their negotiations. In particular, it turned out that the Russian leader was telling his American counterpart about plans to transfer power to Vladimir Putin, and also complained about the Communists who want to take Alaska and Crimea.
In the summer of 2018, these documents were officially published by the Clinton Presidential Library, in total there are 56 entries, including reports on personal meetings, telephone conversations of Clinton and Yeltsin.
Personal relationships
In particular, these documents prove that in fact close and warm personal relations were established between the heads of state, which they have repeatedly stated. They constantly used this friendship to effectively interact with each other. Moreover, they did not always agree, quite often the presidents argued, disagreements arose between them. The most serious, as it now became apparent, were connected with the war in Kosovo and the expansion of NATO to the east.
At the same time, it became known that Clinton repeatedly offered Yeltsin support, especially hard throughout the entire political crisis in the country in 1993, and then the financial and economic problems that followed in 1998, which led to the devaluation of the ruble.
For example, just two days after the shooting of the parliament in the Russian capital, Clinton himself called Yeltsin, expressing support, emphasizing that he did not see any obstacles to holding democratic and fair elections.
When the First Chechen War broke out, Clinton expressed concern about this, noting that the fighting would have a bad effect on the image of Boris Nikolayevich, who was to run for a second term to begin all the reforms that had begun in the country.
Election Credit
After declassifying these documents, it became officially known that Yeltsin had turned to Clinton for help on the eve of the 1996 presidential election. The Russian head of state asked for help with an urgent loan of two and a half billion dollars, he needed the money to conduct an election campaign.
In a conversation with Clinton, the Russian president noted that the money will go to pay salaries and pensions in order to enlist the support of the people before the vote. In response, Clinton promised to conduct appropriate negotiations at the International Monetary Fund, as well as with specific people, to discuss what solution can be found in this situation.
In the spring of 1996, Yeltsin, in a conversation with Clinton, was outraged that the American media supported the communists.
War in Yugoslavia
Another reason for a difficult conversation between the heads of state was the US air strikes on Yugoslavia. Clinton during this conversation called Milosevic a "bully", saying that he should not interfere with the development of their relationship.
In response, Yeltsin complained that ordinary Russians now have a spoiled opinion about the West, but he did everything to improve these relations. When in 1999, with the participation of Russia, an agreement was reached with Yugoslavia, Yeltsin warmly declared to Clinton that he would like to hug him and kiss him so that in this situation their friendship would not suffer.
But a few days after this conversation and a joint photo of Yeltsin and Clinton, taken as a result of the meeting, Russian troops occupied the airport in Pristina, after which the angry Clinton even threatened to disrupt the meeting of the G8.
Operation Successor
It turns out that Yeltsin told Clinton about Putin back in September 1999. The Russian president over the phone informed his American colleague that he had decided on a successor. Noting that he went through a lot of candidates, from which he could not choose anyone worthy until he came across Putin.
Yeltsin characterizes the current head of state as a reliable and knowledgeable person, strong, solid and very sociable. Boris Nikolayevich notes that he hopes to build relations with Putin partners, expresses the conviction that he will be supported in the 2000 elections.
