VANCOUVER SUMMIT: THE PRICE OF REFORM : Through Joking, Political Shoptalk, Bill and Boris Find a Way to Bond : Rapport: The Rhodes scholar and the former construction worker grope for common ground and find it in their populist appeal.

They’re as different as Urals Polytechnic and Yale Law, the Young Communist League and the student council, borscht and a Big Mac.

But in their encounter at the Vancouver summit this weekend, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and President Clinton groped to find a personal connection in the one area of interest these very different men clearly share: the art of personal politics.

In two days of meetings, as they dealt with weighty issues of economics and national security, the two men veered back again and again to that subject--the dark depths of Russian politics and the political challenges Clinton faces in the United States.

At the end, as they posed for photographs after a Sunday afternoon news conference, it was clear that their relationship was still formal and rather stiff. But on one level the two men--now calling each other Boris and Bill--had clearly made a link.

When Yeltsin talked about politics, his American counterpart “certainly understood what he was talking about,” said George Stephanopoulos, the White House communications director. “There was that connection.”

This was shoptalk for the best of causes, with roots stretching back to the grim era of nuclear confrontation. Through 45 years of Cold War and more than three decades of summit meetings, it came to seem that the fate of the world might hang on the personal chemistry between the President of the United States and his counterpart in the Kremlin. Maybe no leader would blow up the world over an issue of animosity with another leader, but who wanted to risk it?

Even now, with missiles slumbering in their silos, the leaders of the Free and the Becoming-Free worlds wanted to do nothing to give an appearance of friction that could jeopardize the hoped-for new harmony between their nations.

So Clinton and Yeltsin smiled. They laughed. They agreed to call each other Boris and Bill. And each made jokes the other would understand--about politics.

When Yeltsin was asked in Sunday’s news conference if the Americans would be wise to build ties to other reform leaders in Russia, he replied with characteristic force, “But there is no alternative to Yeltsin today.”

Clinton was quick on the uptake: “If I were on the ballot, I would make exactly the same statement.”

For the weekend summit, Canadian security agents gave the code names “Thunder” to Yeltsin and “Lightning” to Clinton.

Blustery and coarse, Yeltsin, 62, is the son of a small farmer from the Soviet-era “Rust Belt” city of Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg) in the Ural Mountains. He labored as a construction worker before studying to become a construction engineer. In college, he was active in the Communist Youth League and learned how to work the levers of power to lift himself through the hierarchy.

But in 1989, as an ousted Moscow party boss, Yeltsin also learned that he had a knack for stirring average Russian citizens. When he went into the streets for political support, he found that he knew how to do it better than anyone around at the moment.

He developed a fondness for making dramatic gestures--like riding buses--to show his kinship with the average Russian. In that, he was like Clinton, the overachiever from a lower-middle-class Arkansas family who now lives in the White House but shows a love for junk food, bland rock ‘n’ roll and $12 plastic watches.

The emerging shape of their relationship was apparent in one telling moment Saturday afternoon when Clinton saw a crowd behind a police barricade and plunged in. He needed to look at Yeltsin for only a moment before the Russian understood what was expected--he waded in too.

When Clinton and Yeltsin walked through the woods after lunch Saturday, the first topic Clinton broached was the compromise he was trying to craft between loggers and environmentalists over protection of the old forests of the Pacific Northwest.

“Old growth--very, very old,” Clinton was overheard telling Yeltsin as the two bulky figures with imposing silver pompadours strolled along the path. Yeltsin was puzzled at first but then appeared to catch on: He chopped the air with an arm.

Similarly, in their lunchtime chat, Yeltsin related the obstacles he must overcome to win an April 25 referendum on his leadership and economic program. He talked of his plans to barnstorm the country every day until then.

Clinton listened, thinking about his own campaigning of a year ago, when he faced the bruising test of the New York Democratic primary. Reflecting on the rigors of that campaign and what lies ahead for Yeltsin, he said to himself, “Better him than me,” according to an aide.

Yeltsin paid tribute to Clinton’s political skills in a toast at their dinner Saturday night. He said Clinton grasps Russian politics so well that it is fair to say the American President “can see the situation through the eyes of a Russian peasant.”

And Clinton, a man who carries the scars of half a dozen campaigns, tossed a bouquet designed to appeal to a politician who had risen through the Soviet nomenklatura to become Russia’s largest vote-getter. Yeltsin, he said, is “a real fighter.”

The two men knew also that they shared a common nuisance: the reporters and photographers who seemed so intent on making their day all the more wearying. As dusk came Saturday and the two posed for one more round of photographs, Yeltsin joked to Clinton that the two men were about to be bossed around one more time.

“It will be, ‘President Clinton, you stand over there,’ and ‘President Yeltsin, you stand over there,’ ” he told Clinton through his interpreter. Clinton shook his head. He knew just what Yeltsin was talking about.

The Leaders Speak Excerpts of the prepared statements from President Clinton and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin at the end of their summit: PRESIDENT CLINTON * It is the self-interest and the high duty of all the world’s democracies to stand by Russia’s democratic reforms in their new hour of challenge. * For 45 years, we pursued a deadly competition in nuclear arms. Now we can pursue a safe and steady cooperation to reduce the arsenals that have haunted mankind. * Our nation will not stand on the sidelines when it comes to democracy and Russia. We know where we stand. We are with Russian democracy, we are with Russian reforms, we are with Russian markets. * Our new democratic partnership can make a historic contribution for all humanity well into the next century. PRESIDENT YELTSIN * I am fully satisfied by the results and by the spirit and atmosphere of my encounter with President Bill Clinton. It was in all senses out of the ordinary, but it was made extraordinary by processes transpiring in the United States and Russia conditioned by very special relationships developing between ourselves and Mr. Bill Clinton. * We immediately found common language in Vancouver, probably because we’re both businesslike people and, at the same time, to some extent, idealists both. We also believe that freedom, democracy and freedom of choice for people are not mere words and are prepared to struggle for our beliefs. * The economic package of Bill Clinton--this is what it’s going to be called from here on in, “Bill Clinton’s Economic Package”--is predicated on the fact that America wishes to see Russia prosper with a blooming economy. * Bill Clinton is a serious partner. He is prepared to tackle the major problems confronting our two countries, in the interests of our two countries, in the interests of all free people throughout the world. Source: Times wire services

What’s Next? Moscow and Washington have only started the process to win global support for aid for Russia and the other former republics of the now-defunct Soviet Union. Here are some key dates to watch: April 14-15: Foreign and finance ministers from the wealthy, industrialized Group of Seven nations (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States) meet in Tokyo to discuss, among other items, the summit and Clinton’s Russia aid initiative. April 16: Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa travels to Washington, where, among other issues, Clinton probably will press Tokyo to support his initiatives to aid Russia and other former Soviet republics. April 25: Yeltsin and his government will be subjected to a national referendum, testing the level of support among ordinary Russians for the continuing, difficult course of economic, governmental and social reforms in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Late May-early June: The Russian defense minister may visit the United States to work more closely with his American counterpart on national security issues. June-August: Under Clinton’s proposal, this will be designated “Democracy Summer,” with roughly 3,000 Russians visiting America as part of a $25-million grass-roots, people-to-people program. The plan is to increase contacts between citizens of both countries to better their understanding of each other’s situations. July 7-9: G-7 leaders conduct an economic summit in Tokyo. Source: Times staff