Remembering Yeltsin

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Though the chemistry between us was good, the partnership we established has been subject to plenty of strains. Most have been on specific issues--NATO enlargement and its actions in Kosovo, Chechnya, and antimissile defenses. But there has been a growing tendency lately in both countries to question the premise of partnership--to cast doubt on whether Russia and the U.S. do indeed have common interests outweighing our differences. Whether the issue at hand is arms control or nonproliferation, peace in the Balkans or in the Middle East, opening up the international economy or shutting down terrorism, I believe Russia and America have far more to gain by approaching these problems cooperatively than by falling into the trap of zero-sum politics.

For those with doubts, look at the years since 1991: 5,000 strategic nuclear weapons have been dismantled; U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons are no longer targeted at each other; nuclear weapons have been removed from the other former Soviet states. Russia has withdrawn its troops from the Baltics, and it has played a positive role in the Balkans; now Russian troops serve alongside Americans in Bosnia, and Russian diplomacy was instrumental in achieving peace in Kosovo. The machinery of communism has been dismantled, and the vast majority of Russians work for private employers--not the state.

If Russia's new leaders--the generation to whom Boris Yeltsin gave the stage last Friday--endorse this as firmly as he did, they will find in America an eager and active partner.