Elect Reformers, Christopher Urges Russians

Secretary of State Warren Christopher exhorted Russian voters Saturday to elect reformist candidates to the country’s new Parliament, and he offered U.S. assistance in running the coming election.

In a speech that combined fervent declarations of support for democracy in Russia with some diplomatically worded electioneering for President Boris N. Yeltsin’s close allies, Christopher told an audience of young Russians that their vote Dec. 12 “will change Russia and change the world.”

“I have confidence in the outcome,” Christopher said. “Every time the Russian people have had a chance to choose, they have chosen reform over retrenchment, hope over fear, the future over the past.”

Christopher said his remarks did not endorse any specific party. And aides insisted that he did not intend to make a political gesture by giving his speech at a business school run by the chief of the new party most loyal to Yeltsin, Deputy Prime Minister Yegor T. Gaidar.

Still, his speech came on the kickoff day of a seven-week campaign for a new Parliament to replace the one Yeltsin abolished last month.

And even before the speech, parliamentary candidates in both Gaidar’s party and rival democratic groups had said the Clinton Administration appeared to be favoring Yeltsin’s associates--even though several other groups of democratic reformists are forming.

“The Clinton Administration is tying itself completely to Yeltsin, in the same way the (George) Bush Administration tied itself to (former Soviet President Mikhail S.) Gorbachev,” complained Alexander Shalnev, a political correspondent for the generally pro-Yeltsin newspaper Izvestia.

Christopher said the Administration is willing to provide “immediate technical assistance” for the parliamentary election, but he offered few details.

“Our efforts, if we are asked, would focus on the nuts and bolts of free elections, from voter education to poll-watching,” he said. “As in all countries where we support the electoral process, any assistance we would mobilize in Russia would be politically neutral, nonpartisan and available to all participating parties and groups.”

A State Department official said the Administration is prepared to offer $10 million or more in aid to assist in the election.

Among the proposed projects are:

* Two-day consultations with political party organizations, open to any party participating in the election--except those Yeltsin has excluded because of their participation in the recent parliamentary rebellion.

* Two conferences on party development, in the cities of Perm and Rostov-on-Don.

* As many as 15 “regional information centers” to offer training to local election officials.

* A media training program, run partly by volunteers from the U.S. media, to provide advice to newspaper editors and television station managers on how to cover a campaign and an election.

Russian officials, noting that they have already held parliamentary and presidential elections since 1989, and a nationwide referendum only six months ago, said they doubt that the government will ask for direct assistance in holding the vote.

But Yeltsin has said that he would welcome election observers from the United States and other countries, and a senior U.S. official said Yeltsin is interested in finding out what else the United States might offer.

Much of Christopher’s speech Saturday encouraged Russia’s young people to get out the vote. While U.S. and Russian officials have expressed confidence that Yeltsin’s followers and other democratic parties will win a majority in the Parliament, some fear that remnants of the old Communist Party machine will mobilize a large turnout of anti-Yeltsin voters.

“I know that many of you may be tired of politics,” Christopher said. “But I will ask of you what Bill Clinton asked of young Americans when he ran for President last year: Do not let your healthy skepticism harden into cynicism, and do not let the promise of change wilt into apathy.”

“History is on your side, the side of democracy, and so are we,” he said.

After his speech, Christopher flew to Kazakhstan, where he is to meet with President Nursultan Nazarbayev today.

The leaders are expected to sign agreements on encouraging private American investment in the country and providing U.S. aid to help it dismantle nuclear arms.