$1 billion in aid to Russia but linked this assistance
to further progress toward economic reform, as
progress toward implementation of the sweeping re-
form program was meeting significant resistance
from conservative elements within the state bureau-
cracy, from enterprise and state farm directors, as
well as from the burgeoning numbers of dispos-
sessed within Russian society. In one of his last offi-
cial acts as U.S. president, George H. W. Bush trav-
eled to Moscow in January, 1993, to initial the
START II agreement, which codified verbal agree-
ments made the previous summer, formally commit-
ting Russia and the United States to reduce their
strategic nuclear arsenals by over three thousand
warheads.
The Clinton-Yeltsin Relationship Develops As 1993
progressed, the new U.S. president, Bill Clinton, con-
tinued to pursue many of the same policies with re-
gard to Russia that had been inaugurated by his pre-
decessor. Indeed, at the Vancouver Summit between
Clinton and Yeltsin, further commitments on arms
control, economic and humanitarian assistance to
Russia, and the promotion of democracy in Eastern
Europe and the successor states of the former Soviet
Union were signed by the two leaders. In addition,
the Vancouver negotiations also achieved a novel
agreement on U.S.-Russian technical cooperation in
space, which witnessed the formation of a new U.S.-
Russian commission headed by Vice President Al
Gore and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.
The other seminal event of 1993 in the West’s de-
veloping relationship with Russia was the unwaver-
ing support that American and Canadian govern-
ments lent Yeltsin in his successful attempt to
disperse communist and nationalist parliamentary
rebels that had sought to overthrow his nascent re-
gime. After shelling the Russian parliament and ar-
resting the coup’s ringleaders, Yeltsin called for new
elections and the passage of a new constitution that
would favor heavily the victorious president. In gen-
eral, the West rallied to support the embattled presi-
dent, fearing a return to communist revanchism;
throughout the fall, Clinton in particular supported
Yeltsin in his successful attempt to persuade the Rus-
sian people to back the new constitutional frame-
work in the upcoming December elections, arguing
that Yeltsin’s moves were consistent with the demo-
cratic course. In the end, Yeltsin’s pro-presidential
constitution narrowly passed; however, ultranation-
alist and communist parties fared very well in the
parliamentary elections, as the Russian people grew
weary with market reforms that produced severe so-
cial dislocations. Although heartened by the passage
of the presidential constitution, American officials
announced a rethinking of aid programs because of
the strong showing of oppositional forces in the par-
liamentary elections.
Following these dramatic events, Clinton paid
his first official visit to Moscow in January, 1994. Be-
sides agreeing on further restationing of Russian
troops in Eastern Europe, particularly the newly in-
dependent states of Estonia and Latvia, the two pres-
idents agreed to no longer target their strategic nu-
clear missiles at each other’s country. Yeltsin also
announced Russia’s intention to participate in the
new Partnership for Peace program of the North At-
lantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Immediately
following this summit, the first joint U.S.-Russian
space shuttle mission was launched, ushering in
an era of greater cooperation between the two coun-
tries in space endeavors; this event was followed
by other joint endeavors in the ensuing years, such
as the successful docking of the U.S. space shuttle
Atlantiswith the Russian space station Mir in 1995
and the development and launching of the Inter-
national Space Station’s control module in Novem-
ber, 1998.Discord Surfaces Despite several breakthroughs
in the latter half of the 1990’s, including the January,
1996, ratification of START II by the U.S. Senate, the
signing in May, 1997, of the NATO-Russia Founding
Act (which deepened Russia’s involvement in the al-
liance’s political and military structures), and Rus-
sia’s formal joining of the G7 nations (now renamed
the G8) in June, 1997, a growing divide began to
plague the U.S.-Russian relationship during the sec-
ond terms of Presidents Yeltsin and Clinton. Under
pressure from vocal nationalist and communist op-
position over NATO’s expansion into Eastern Eu-
rope and its possible inclusion of Estonia, Latvia,
and Lithuania, the three Baltic states of the former
Soviet Union, Yeltsin was forced to decelerate prog-
ress toward greater Russian involvement in the mili-
tary alliance. Added to these pressures were Rus-
sian objections over NATO’s and the United States’
intervention in the 1996-1999 conflict between
Russian-backed Serbia and Kosovar Albanians over
control of the autonomous Kosovo region. More-The Nineties in America Russia and North America 735