CRISIS IN THE KREMLIN : NATO Takes Hard Line With Soviets : Europe: Despite the collapse of the hard-line coup, the Western alliance issues a blunt communique. : Kohl Praises Yeltsin
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl spoke with Yeltsin by phone Wednesday and declared the Soviet coup’s failure “a victory of the will for peace and democracy, which would not have been possible without the courage and steadfastness of the president of the Russian republic.”
The statement released by Kohl’s office in Bonn said the chancellor, vacationing in Austria, congratulated Yeltsin on “this great day in the history of the Russian people.”
The chancellor’s effusive praise of Yeltsin, along with an invitation to visit Germany in coming weeks, suggested an important new role for the Russian president on the world stage.
With perestroika to thank for opening the Berlin Wall and allowing German unification, Kohl has been the closest Western ally of Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Germany is also the Soviet Union’s biggest trade partner and most generous aid supplier, with billions of marks pledged over the next few years, in return for the withdrawal by 1994 of all 273,000 Soviet troops still stationed in what used to be Communist East Germany.
Kohl said Yeltsin accepted the invitation to visit Germany, but no date was set.
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