Confounding all predictions of a ho-hum summit, Boris Yeltsin swept into Washington like the virtuoso politician he is, surprising and exciting the blase capital. Russia's first democratically elected President quickly disposed of the lingering distractions of strategic-arms control and turned his attention to what matters most to him: trade and aid for Russia.
Yeltsin was surely aware that many Administration officials still tended to view him as a bumpkin and that he needed to overcome Washington's nostalgia for his sophisticated predecessor, Mikhail Gorbachev. He succeeded with a confident, bravura performance that became a personal triumph.
The first rabbit out of his...
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