Mitterrand Joins Clinton in Push for Aid to Russia

President Clinton and French President Francois Mitterrand on Tuesday called on the world’s major industrial powers to offer new, large-scale emergency aid to Russia well before their scheduled economic summit in July.

The appeal by the two leaders was a deliberate, public push toward a quick increase in Western aid for Russia’s embattled reformist president, Boris N. Yeltsin.

“I don’t believe we can wait until July for the major countries of the world, who care about what happens in Russia and who would like very much to keep political and economic reform on track there, to move,” Clinton told reporters after meeting with Mitterrand at the White House. He said he would try “to mobilize others to act in this regard.”

Clinton did not mention any specific ideas for helping Yeltsin. But aides said the Administration is considering proposals for multinational aid packages in the billions of dollars, as well as what they call “innovative” forms of direct American assistance.

They said that Clinton has ordered the proposed program to be completed in time for his summit with Yeltsin in Vancouver, Canada, on April 3-4. “The President is very serious about this,” a senior official said. “This policy is personally driven by him.”

Clinton already has proposed increasing direct economic aid to Russia and its neighbors from $417 million this year to $700 million next year. But the senior official said that is only “a starting point.”

Some influential members of Congress, including Sens. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), have called for a larger aid program.

Last year, the leading industrial nations, known as the Group of Seven (G-7), announced a $24-billion aid plan for the former Soviet Union. But only about $14 billion was delivered, most of it in short-term loans.

Saying that Russia’s problems are “urgent,” Mitterrand called for an emergency summit of the G-7--the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada--to shape a new aid program.

Clinton agreed that such a summit “might be useful,” but noted that Japan already has objected to the idea of an emergency summit.

Japan, which is scheduled to host the scheduled G-7 meeting in Tokyo in July, has refused to grant substantial aid to Russia unless it returns four northern islands seized at the end of World War II.

“Whether a meeting is possible or not depends in part on the response of the other members of the G-7,” Clinton said.

Among other options, White House spokesman George Stephanopoulos said, is a meeting between Secretary of State Warren Christopher and the foreign ministers of the other G-7 countries, or between Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen and the other finance ministers. The seven finance ministers are already scheduled to meet in Washington in April.

“Whether it’s a summit or not isn’t the important thing,” a senior official said. “The important thing is to get some G-7 attention to the Russian debt issue. That’s what we’re talking about.”

Russia owes $84 billion in official debt to the West, most of it inherited from the now-defunct Soviet Union, and has been seeking relief from the estimated $15 billion in payments now due.

“It is . . . important for us to try to move aggressively to give the Russians the means to restore some economic growth and opportunity and preserve political liberty,” Clinton said.

Clinton and Mitterrand also timed their announcement, in part, in an attempt to give a political boost to Yeltsin, who faces a series of showdowns with a rebellious Russian Parliament. The Congress of People’s Deputies is scheduled to convene in Moscow today to debate how much power Yeltsin, as president, should have.

Clinton’s endorsement of early action by the G-7 echoed a proposal from former President Richard Nixon, who met with him at the White House on Monday night. Nixon has proposed an early infusion of $6 billion or more of Western aid to give Yeltsin “breathing room” to enact economic reforms.