Clinton to Offer ‘Specific’ Aid to Yeltsin, Christopher Says

President Clinton will offer some “very specific, very tangible, very precise non-ideological programs” to ease the hardships of ordinary Russians when he meets President Boris N. Yeltsin next month, despite growing American frustration with Moscow’s economic mismanagement, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said Thursday.

In another expression of confidence in the embattled Yeltsin, Christopher told a House Appropriations subcommittee that the U.S. government has faith in the Russian president and his economic advisers. But he said that some other elements of the Russian economy--especially the central bank--have blundered badly.

“The central bank is a central problem,” Christopher said, criticizing the institution for printing excessive amounts of money and pushing the economy to the verge of hyper-inflation.

Under Russia’s unwieldy version of separation of powers, the central bank, which controls the money supply, is under the control of the Parliament instead of the president.

Christopher acknowledged that Washington cannot meddle in the day-to-day operations of the Russian economy.

“I think we need to rely heavily on President Yeltsin for continued leadership in this, to be supportive of him but not to be second-guessing at too early a date,” Christopher said.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Les Aspin said that despite the political crisis in Moscow, it is safe to cut the defense budget.

In a speech at the National Defense University in Washington, Aspin said that, if Yeltsin falters, Russia could revert to an “ultranationalist, hostile and authoritarian” government or collapse into chaos.

Nevertheless, he said, Russia could not easily rebuild the once-fearsome Soviet military machine, so “for now, we can continue bringing down defense spending.”

Clinton met Thursday night at the White House with a bipartisan group of 19 members of the House to sound them out about aid to Russia.

The President meets today with a similar group from the Senate, and he expects to discuss Russia’s troubles with Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany, who visits the White House today.

Clinton and Yeltsin are to meet in Vancouver, Canada, on April 3 and 4.

As the Administration prepared for the summit, Clinton and Christopher pressured the foreign minister of Russia’s neighbor, Ukraine, to take steps to remove the 1,500 nuclear missiles installed in that country during the Soviet era.

In a 20-minute White House meeting, Clinton told Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatoly Zlenko that Ukraine must ratify the treaty on strategic arms reduction, which requires the destruction of all of the nuclear weapons on its territory, if it wants to forge a better relationship with the United States.

Times staff writer Paul Richter contributed to this report.