Russia Rescued or Russia Ruined? : Following Nixon’s lead, Bush endorses package

There are moments, however rare, when politics does seem to stop at the water’s edge. Wednesday morning may have been one such. President Bush’s announcement at a White House news conference of a new package of U.S. aid for Russia and the other republics of the former Soviet Union breaks a bipartisan logjam and moves the nation toward a key bipartisan consensus.

Money for most of the components in the aid package, which the President has dubbed the Freedom Support Act, has already been budgeted, including the all-important authorization of $12 billion for the International Monetary Fund. The only new financial commitment is a $1.1-billion increase in loan guarantees to enable former Soviet republics to buy U.S. products.

TURNING POINT: The U.S. aid effort on behalf of the former Soviet republics remains much smaller than the $35-billion German effort. And yet this announcement will rightly be welcomed as a turning point in U.S.-Russian relations. While the path ahead for Russia remains an extremely difficult one, just Tuesday the IMF approved Russia’s economic recovery plan, clearing the way for Russian IMF membership and thereby also for loans. It’s true that the IMF is perhaps the strictest lender in the world. Approval came only with further demands for Russian belt-tightening and economic reform. All the same, the approval has the welcome ring of a Russian Easter overture. The most fateful winter in recent Russian history is fading into spring, and the worst has not happened.

Here in the United States Bush’s announcement will almost certainly not be turned into political ammunition against him by any but the fast-fading Patrick J. Buchanan. Congressional Democrats have clearly not wanted to make the first move toward any form of “foreign aid” (not really an accurate label for when the United States simply increases IMF credit to a major purchaser of U.S. agricultural goods). Now that the President has made that first move, many Democrats will gladly follow him.

DECISION POINT: The moment is notable in another regard. Though the President was at pains to create the impression that his current position has been the policy all along, a dispute has undeniably been resolved. In one camp, now apparently defeated, stood such figures as former national security advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry A. Kissinger. They have been decidedly cool to aid for historically expansionist Russia, stressing, instead, help for the republics of Eastern Europe (to create a buffer zone against Russia) and for Ukraine and Kazakhstan (to create local rivals to Russia).

In the other camp stood former President Richard M. Nixon--and, let it be said, much of American journalistic opinion. Nixon’s view, and ours, has been that Russia ruined is far more likely to pose a serious threat than Russia rescued. Tacitly, in this international rescue triage, Russia is stabilized first.

“Together we won the Cold War,” the President said, “and today we must win the peace.” We agree.