Clinton Says He Will Offer Help to Yeltsin at Summit

President Clinton said Friday that he is prepared to “aggressively engage” the United States in the faltering economic and political reform of Russia and will offer concrete help when he meets with Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin in Vancouver, Canada, on April 3 and 4.

Clinton said that the two leaders’ first summit will be more than a ceremonial “meet and greet” session and will focus on substantive ways the United States and its allies can aid the struggling Russian people.

“I will try to be rather specific at that time in terms of what the United States will be prepared to do, and we will try to offer some innovative solutions to the difficulties faced by the president and by the Russian people,” Clinton said at an impromptu news conference after a meeting with U.S. mayors. “I hope that this will be a very productive thing.”

He said he will present specific ideas on financial, political and technical support for the fledgling Russian democracy.

The West has pledged billions of dollars in reconstruction aid for Russia and the newly free nations of the former Soviet Union. But much of the money has been held up by bureaucratic inertia and disputes over how the aid could best be targeted.

White House aides said later that Clinton last week called former President Richard Nixon to discuss Russia’s problems and what the United States could do about them. The half-hour conversation apparently strengthened Clinton’s resolve to address Russia as a priority.

Nixon has argued--most recently on Friday in an article in the New York Times--that America’s economic fate is inextricably linked with that of the former Soviet Union. “The Russian democracy is going through a deadly crisis,” Nixon wrote. “Without a substantial increase in aid from the West, the Yeltsin government will not survive. The U.S. must lead in providing it.”

Vancouver was chosen because Yeltsin will be traveling in the Russian Far East at the beginning of April, making it a convenient location. The meeting was extended to two days from one as the agenda expanded to include all of Clinton’s and Yeltsin’s proposals.

The summit was timed to give Yeltsin a boost a week before a critical referendum on the balance of power between the Russian president and Parliament. The Russian Parliament has been a center of opposition to Yeltsin’s broad economic and political reforms.

“I believe that he is a man of real courage and real commitment to democracy,” Clinton said Friday in a clear endorsement of the Russian leader’s reform plans.

The President said he will discuss with Yeltsin “what the United States can do to support his efforts to strengthen democracy and to create a vibrant market economy and to support our common interests in solving crises around the world and maintaining a general march to peace and freedom and democracy.”

“I don’t want to make any sweeping commitments,” Clinton added. “But I’m going there to this meeting with the intention of trying to more aggressively engage the United States in the economic and political revitalization of Russia.”

White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos said Clinton is not prepared to discuss his specific Russian aid proposals yet. “But he’s always had a strong commitment to doing whatever we can creatively along with our allies to make sure that Russia survives,” he said. He added that Clinton is likely to meet with Nixon before the summit to talk about Russia and prepare for his first foreign trip.

Clinton has not spoken to former President George Bush since the election, White House aides said.

American officials said that, besides aid questions, Clinton and Yeltsin will discuss Russian arms sales to the developing world. The United States has tried to block a number of such sales, prompting complaints from Moscow that Washington is cutting off an important source of income to pay for conversion of the Russian defense industry to civilian uses.

Officials also said the Balkans strife will be discussed, as well as efforts to restart the Middle East peace talks.

In addition, Clinton and Yeltsin are likely to discuss grain sales, officials in Moscow said. Russia warned Friday that it may abandon the American market for other grain suppliers if the United States fails to resume grain deliveries “within the next few days or weeks.”

The U.S. Agriculture Department last month cut off grain credits to Russia for 1993 after Moscow defaulted on more than $400 million in U.S. government-backed loans for farm products.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander N. Shokhin told reporters Friday that Russia plans to buy 16 million tons of grain in 1993. He said it has secured shipments of 5 million tons of grain from French and European Community credits and plans to buy 2 million tons from Australia.

Also on the agenda is rescheduling more than $75 billion in Russian debts to Western banks and governments. Interest payments are depleting Russia’s foreign exchange reserves and stalling efforts to establish a market economy.

Times staff writer Richard Boudreaux in Moscow contributed to this report.