Clinton Pledges $20 Million in Aid for Chechen Victims : Russia: After meeting with German chancellor, he reaffirms support for Yeltsin, criticizes Chechnya policy.

President Clinton on Thursday pledged $20 million in humanitarian aid to victims of the Russian suppression of the rebellion in Chechnya but reaffirmed U.S. support for Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and his irregular efforts at political and economic reform.

Appearing with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl after a 2 1/2-hour White House meeting, Clinton chastised Yeltsin for the “corrosive effect” that the Chechen conflict is having on democratic reforms in Russia.

But he and Kohl said they agreed that momentary displeasure with the way Yeltsin is pursuing the war against the Chechen rebels is outweighed by Western interests in seeing Russia evolve into a stable, democratic nation.

Kohl was in Washington for a day of meetings with Clinton and congressional leaders, and the President hosted a state dinner for him Thursday night.

Clinton said he has faith in Yeltsin because he has kept his word on withdrawal of troops from the Baltics and on nuclear arms accords and because the apparent alternatives are much worse.

“You have to be able to deal with the rough spots on the road and stay on course,” Clinton said, referring to the violence in Chechnya and disagreements over expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to Russia’s East European neighbors.

The Russian army has virtually leveled the Chechen capital of Grozny, leaving hundreds dead and tens of thousands homeless. Russian military action in the breakaway province continued Thursday, with reports of shelling and helicopter assaults on villages south of Grozny.

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Kohl said German and American financial and moral support for Yeltsin gives him and Clinton the right to criticize Yeltsin for his actions in Chechnya, but he warned against those who would back Yeltsin into a corner and pave the way for a takeover by Russian reactionary forces.

U.S. officials said the money for Chechnya relief efforts will come from Pentagon relief supplies, already appropriated refugee assistance funds and the aid budget for newly independent states of the former Soviet Union.

On Capitol Hill, the Republican chairman of the Senate committee that oversees foreign aid sharply criticized Clinton’s unconditional support for Yeltsin.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), at a hearing on the 1996 foreign aid budget, said the Administration’s embrace of Yeltsin is “short-sighted and wrong.”

“Instead of being champions for democracy, we have become cheerleaders for Yeltsin, a president that is at this point virtually indistinguishable in practice from politicians you suggest we should dread,” McConnell lectured Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott.

A senior U.S. official denied that the United States and Germany are giving Yeltsin a “blank check” to suppress internal dissent. “He knows that his image in the West has been seriously damaged and that political basis for continued support for Russian reform has been shaken. . . .” he said.