Russia Shelves Rhetoric to Accept U.S. Food Aid

After mounting a blistering attack on the U.S. bombing of Iraq, Russia swallowed its pride, shelved its anti-American rhetoric and agreed Wednesday to accept 3.1 million tons of emergency food from the United States.

In an abrupt turnaround that demonstrates how far Russia has fallen from its days of Soviet glory, officials joined the U.S. in signing humanitarian relief pacts worth more than $600 million--its largest food-aid package in six years--to prevent hunger and possible starvation in Russia this winter.

“We will all overlook the fact that there may have appeared some tiny little crack in our relations,” said Deputy Prime Minister Gennady V. Kulik, using a pen adorned with a dollar symbol to sign the accords. “We will take reasonable and balanced decisions . . . that serve the cause of peace and order in international relations.”

With its economy in tatters and the Kremlin desperately seeking billions of dollars in foreign loans, Russia today finds itself in the position of accepting handouts to feed its people--not dictating world policy.

Although officials repeatedly expressed their outrage last week over the four days of U.S.-British air and missile strikes, Russia was powerless to help its longtime ally Iraq.

“There is no one in the world who can humiliate Russia except Russia itself,” said Otto R. Latsis, a Russian economist and journalist. “What good does it do to go around showing off your muscles and brandishing your fists in everyone else’s face when you know that tomorrow you will have to go back to begging for help and panhandling for money?”

In assailing the strikes, Russian leaders had used some of their harshest language toward the U.S. since the end of the Cold War. President Boris N. Yeltsin charged that the United States had “crudely violated the U.N. Charter and the generally accepted principles of international law.”

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov warned of a return to “lynch law” and “medieval times” and said it could take years to rebuild Russia’s confidence in the United States. Yegor S. Stroyev, chairman of the upper house of parliament, said the United States had “taken to the path of state terrorism.”

In a blow to one of the Clinton administration’s most important foreign policy goals, the lower house of parliament, or Duma, said it would continue to delay the long-awaited ratification of the START II weapons reduction treaty. And Russia recalled its ambassador to the United States, Yuli M. Vorontsov, for consultations.

By Wednesday, however, the rift was on the mend. The food aid deal was sealed, Vorontsov was winging his way back to Washington, and Russian officials were looking ahead to the arrival of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for high-level meetings in late January.

“Moscow believes the planned visit of U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to Russia will be important for overcoming the negative consequences of the U.S. use of force against Iraq and for further Russian-U.S. interaction,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Rakhmanin said Tuesday.

To the frustration of its leaders, simple economics prevent Russia from playing the superpower role of its Soviet past. Much of the country’s foreign policy is geared toward securing massive aid from Western lenders such as the International Monetary Fund, over which the United States wields great influence.

Prime Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov has proposed a budget of about $28 billion for this massive country next year--about the same amount Californians spend annually in restaurants.

But to spend even that modest amount, Russia must borrow $7.5 billion from foreign sources.

This summer, with U.S. support, Russia secured pledges of more than $22 billion in aid from the IMF, the World Bank and the government of Japan. But after Russia devalued its currency, froze foreign debt payments and squandered an initial $4.8-billion loan installment, the lenders held up most of the remaining aid.

Primakov said this week that he is dissatisfied that Russia has not yet received $8.1 billion in two “promised” installments from the IMF. Compared with IMF bailouts for Indonesia, South Korea and Brazil, he said, “this is not so much.” Moscow is hoping for a breakthrough in talks next month, when IMF officials are scheduled to arrive in Moscow for further discussions.

The biggest casualty of the spat over Iraq is START II, which would reduce each side’s nuclear arsenal to no more than 3,500 warheads by 2003.

In an apparent attempt to regain U.S. confidence after Russia’s economic collapse in August, Primakov--who was appointed premier in September--and his ministers had been pushing the Communist-dominated Duma to ratify the treaty. One Western diplomat said Russia was closer than it had ever been to ratifying the pact--until the bombs started falling on Iraq.

“A return to the Cold War in its classic form is not possible,” Primakov said Wednesday during a trip to the former Soviet state of Kazakhstan. “But at the same time, a cooling in relations is possible, and everything now depends on the United States and the countries of the West. The ball is in their court.”

For U.S. officials, the food aid pact is a good start. Under the program, the U.S. will give Russia 1.5 million tons of wheat outright and lend it the money to buy another 1.5 million tons of agricultural commodities from U.S. farmers.

The bulk of the aid is intended to go to Russians in remote regions, where the government has had difficulty delivering supplies. Russia will be allowed to sell some of the food to the public, with the proceeds going to pay pensions, which millions of elderly people have not received for months.

The U.S. sought to negotiate terms that will make it more difficult for the food supplies to end up on the black market--as has happened with earlier aid programs. It also won agreement from Moscow not to tax the humanitarian assistance, as Russia has done in the past, U.S. officials said.

The program also will help U.S. farmers by providing a new market for their crops.

“In the United States, we have an expression: This is a win-win situation,” said U.S. Charge d’Affaires John Tefft, who also signed the accords. “The people of the United States are proud that our country is able to provide these food shipments at this time of need to Russia.”