Nixon Takes Tea With Former Russian Vice President

Former President Richard Nixon had tea with Russia’s dismissed former vice president, Alexander V. Rutskoi, on Monday and urged the leader of last October’s bloody rebellion in Moscow on to better things.

“Good luck to you and good luck to your boys,” Nixon told Rutskoi, who was jailed for inciting a crowd to attack a Moscow television station in October, triggering fighting that killed at least 147 people.

Rutskoi and other leaders of the rebellion were released from prison nine days ago after Russia’s new conservative Parliament granted them an amnesty. President Boris N. Yeltsin tried--but failed--to keep them from being set free.

Yeltsin is expected to see Nixon later this week.

Nixon, who arrived in Moscow this week on his 10th visit here, is seeking a meeting with Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky, the Russian ultranationalist leader.

A spokesman for Nixon said the former President spoke with President Clinton last week about his intention to arrange a meeting with Zhirinovsky, whose party placed first in Russia’s parliamentary elections in December.

Clinton refused to meet with Zhirinovsky during his visit here in January, and senior U.S. officials have been instructed to stay clear of the extremist, who has espoused aggressively nationalistic views.

Nixon and Rutskoi posed for photographs in Rutskoi’s home, and Nixon said afterward that they had discussed relations between their countries.

Earlier, Nixon met with lawmaker Grigory Yavlinsky at the Russian Parliament. No details of their meeting were available.