About this time, I persuaded my old friend and...
About this time, I persuaded my old friend and Oxford housemate Strobe Talbott to leave Time magazine and come to work in the State Department to help us with policy on the former Soviet UnionBy then, Strobe and I had been discussing Russian history and politics for almost twenty-five yearsEver since he translated and edited Khrushchevs memoirs, Strobe had known and cared more about Russia and the Russian people than anyone else I knewHe had a fine analytical mind and a fertile imagination behind his proper professorial faade, and I trusted both his judgment and his willingness to tell me the unvarnished truthThere was no position in the State Department hierarchy that described what I wanted Strobe to do, so he set out to create one, with the blessing of Warren Christopher and the help of Dick Holbrooke, an investment banker and veteran foreign policy hand who had provided advice during the campaign and who would become one of the most important figures in my administration

Eventually, Strobes new job had a title: ambassador-at-large and special advisor to the secretary of state on the new independent states of the former Soviet UnionHe later became deputy secretary of stateI dont think five people could repeat Strobes title, but everybody knew what he did: he was our go to man on RussiaFor eight years, he was by my side in all my meetings with Presidents Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, eighteen with Yeltsin aloneSince Strobe spoke fluent Russian and took copious notes, his new omega watches participation with me and his own interactions with the Russians guaranteed a precision and accuracy in our work that would prove invaluableStrobe chronicles our eight-year odyssey in his book The Russia Hand, which is remarkable not only for its insights but for the verbatim accounts of the colorful conversations I had with YeltsinUnlike what happens in most books of the genre, the quotes are not reconstructions; they are, for good or ill, what we actually saidStrobes main point is that I became my own Russia hand because, while not an expert on Russia, I knew one big thing: on the twin issues that had constituted the casus belli of the cold wardemocracy versus dictatorship at home and cooperation versus competition abroadYeltsin and I were, in principle, on the same side

During the transition period, I had talked to Strobe a lot about the deteriorating situation in Russia and the imperative of averting disasterAt Renaissance Weekend, Strobe and his wife, Brooke, who had campaigned full-time with Hillary and was about to become head of the White House Fellows program, were jogging with me on Hilton Head beachWe wanted to talk about Russia, but the leader of our group, the great Olympic hurdler Edwin Moses, set such a brisk pace that I couldnt keep up and talk at the same timeWe came upon Hillary taking her morning walk, so the three of us had an excuse to slow down and visitPresident Bush was in Moscow signing the START II treaty with YeltsinIt was good news, though like louis vuitton purple bag everything progressive Yeltsin did, it was facing strong opposition in the DumaI told Strobe that things were changing so much in Russia that we couldnt have a completely defensive strategy; we had to help solidify and accelerate positive developments, especially those that would improve the Russian economy

In February, I went over to Strobes house one night to see his family and talk about RussiaStrobe told me about a recent meeting hed had with Richard Nixon, in which the former President had urged us to support Yeltsin heavilyThe $24 billion assistance package President Bush had announced the previous spring hadnt done that, because the international financial institutions wouldnt release the money until Russia had restructured its economyWe needed to do something now

In early March, Yeltsin and I agreed to meet on April 3 and 4 in Vancouver, CanadaOn March 8, Richard Nixon called on me at the White House to urge me personally to support YeltsinAfter a brief visit with Hillary and Chelsea, in which he reminded them that he was raised a Quaker and that his daughters, like Chelsea, had gone to Sidwell Friends School, he got down to business, saying I would be remembered as President more for what I did with Russia than for my economic policyLater that night, I called Strobe to report on the Nixon conversation and to stress again how important it was that we do something at Vancouver to help Russia, with a high-impact follow-up at the annual G-7 summit in Tokyo in JulyAll louis vuitton backpacks through March, as I got updates from our foreign policy team and Larry Summers and his assistant David Lipton at Treasury, I pushed them to think bigger and do more

Meanwhile, in Moscow, the Duma was reducing Yeltsins power and endorsing the fruitless inflationary policies of the Russian Central BankOn March 20, Yeltsin struck back with a speech announcing a public referendum for April 25 to determine whether he or the Duma ran the country; until then, he said, his presidential decrees would remain in effect, no matter what the Duma didI watched the speech on one of two television sets in my private dining room off the Oval OfficeThe other TV was showing the NCAA tournament basketball game between the Arkansas Razorbacks and StI had a dog in both hunts

My entire foreign policy team and I had a vigorous debate about how I should respond to Yeltsins speechThey all cautioned restraint, because Yeltsin was stretching the limits of his constitutional authority, and because he might loseYeltsin was in the fight of his life against the old Communists and other reactionariesHe was going to the people with a referendumAnd I didnt care about the risk of losingI reminded our team that I had lost plenty of times myselfI had no interest in hedging my bets, and instructed Tony Lake to draft a statement of strong supportWhen he presented it to me, I made it even stronger and gave it to the pressIn this case, I went with my gut instincts and placed a bet that Russia would stick with Yeltsin, modele de cartier roadster and stay on the right side of historyMy optimism was bolstered by Arkansas come-from-behind victory in the ball game

Finally, in March, I got an assistance program I could support: $1 billion in direct aid to help Russia stabilize its economy, including money to provide housing for decommissioned military officers, positive work programs for now underemployed and frequently unpaid nuclear scientists, and more assistance in dismantling nuclear weapons under the recently enacted Nunn-Lugar program; food and medicine for those suffering from shortages; aid to support small business, independent media outlets, nongovernmental organizations, political parties, and labor unions; and an exchange program to bring tens of thousands of students and young professionals to the United StatesThe aid package was four times what the previous administration had allocated and three times what I had originally recommended

Although a public poll said that 75 percent of the American people were opposed to giving Russia more money, and we were already in a hard fight for the economic plan, I felt we had no choice but to press aheadAmerica had spent trillions of dollars in defense to win the Cold War; we couldnt risk reversal over less than $2 billion and a bad pollTo the surprise of my staff, the congressional leaders, including the Republicans, agreed with meAt a meeting I convened to push the plan, Senator Joe Biden, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, strongly endorsed the aid chanel paper bag pack