Summit Shocks Await Clinton

MOSCOW: Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin visited a Moscow school Tuesday -- an appropriate venue to open a summit at which the U.S. president will learn some hard lessons. "No matter what he says in public, Clinton is going to come away rather shaken from his meetings with Yeltsin," says TIME Moscow bureau chief Paul Quinn-Judge. "Until now there's been a lot of wishful thinking going on in Washington, but there's little chance that Yeltsin will show the necessary intellectual stamina to convince the Americans that he's in charge."

Determining who is in charge won't be easy, either: Although Yeltsin plans to renominate Viktor Chernomyrdin for prime minister despite his resounding rejection by the Duma on Monday, the Communists and nationalists who control the legislature may nominate their own candidate -- and the outcome of the power struggle will shape the future of Russian economic reform. "It's a serious game of chicken that could get out of control," says Quinn-Judge. And while contending factions tussle for control of the wheel, the ship is sinking fast.