U.S. Supports Reform in Russian Vote, Christopher Tells Primakov

Skirting close to a formal endorsement of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin’s campaign for reelection, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said Friday that Washington supports Moscow’s reformers, a group in which he included the embattled incumbent.

In a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov, Christopher was asked directly by a Russian reporter if President Clinton, who plans to visit Russia next month, will urge the voters to stick with Yeltsin.

“I’m sure that President Clinton will come here and follow basically the line that he has followed ever since the beginning of his presidency--to support reform and to support those who are enthusiastic about reform and are carrying out reform,” Christopher said.

“That has brought him into strong support for President Yeltsin on prior occasions,” Christopher said. “I’m sure President Clinton will, without wanting to intervene in any way in the Russian election . . . maintain the consistent position of the United States of supporting reform here both on the political side as well as on the economic side.”

Perhaps because of U.S. reluctance to create new headaches for Yeltsin, who trails Communist Party candidate Gennady A. Zyuganov in public opinion polls, Christopher avoided most controversy in his meetings with the president and Primakov.

For instance, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said that there was no mention of Russia’s war in Chechnya in any of Christopher’s meetings.

The conflict is a subject of friction between the two governments and the cause of at least part of the unpopularity that has dimmed Yeltsin’s hopes for a second term.

The enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was not raised in Christopher’s meeting with Yeltsin, although the secretary of state and Primakov discussed the issue without coming to a conclusion.

Primakov suggested that Russia might accept some form of NATO enlargement if the alliance agrees to impose restrictions on new members.

“A compromise is possible, except one in which the military infrastructure of NATO would be moved closer to Russia,” he said.

Christopher hedged Washington’s bet on Yeltsin by meeting at the U.S. ambassador’s residence with six politicians and a businessman, none of whom have a role in Yeltsin’s government. The group included several supporters of Yeltsin’s candidacy, but it also included Zyuganov and Nikolai Kharitonov, head of the Communist-allied Agrarian Party of Russia.

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Burns said all the Russians, including Zyuganov, spoke of the importance of their nation’s relationship with the United States.

Christopher insisted that Washington’s primary hope is that the election will be “free, fair, honest and transparent.”

Christopher’s meeting with Primakov, which began over dinner Thursday, was the first full-scale cabinet-level session since Primakov replaced Andrei V. Kozyrev as foreign minister in January.

The focus of the talks, officials said, was to prepare the agenda for next month’s Clinton-Yeltsin summit.

The presidents will meet as part of a nuclear-safety conference to be attended by the leaders of Russia and the Group of Seven industrialized nations--the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada.

Christopher and Primakov apparently reached complete agreement on a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty that both governments can support.

Christopher and Primakov would say only that they had made “good progress” on the issue; a senior U.S. official said the agreement will be announced by Clinton and Yeltsin in April.

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A U.S.-Russian accord would be a significant step toward a treaty banning all nuclear explosions.

However, China continues to hold out for permission to conduct “peaceful” nuclear explosions, a position other governments say is incompatible with a test ban.

The treaty is being considered by the 38-nation conference on disarmament in Geneva.

A consensus of all countries is required to complete the text, but if all the nuclear powers agree, the others are expected to go along.

Earlier this week, Christopher predicted that the treaty will be completed in the summer.

On another arms-control dispute, Burns said Christopher and Primakov neared agreement on ways to bring Moscow into full compliance with the treaty on conventional forces in Europe, or CFE.

Russian troop deployments in the trouble-plagued Caucasus region exceed limits written into the treaty during the dying days of the Soviet Union.

“We heard some very positive things on CFE,” Burns said. “We think we will have a satisfactory outcome by May,” when signatories will conduct a formal review of the treaty.