Russian roulette

National Review, Dec 28, 1992

BORIS YELTSIN has maintained himself and most of his government in place, but by razorthin margins, in the early-December session of the Congress of People's Deputies. A constitutional amendment that would have severely curtailed the president's powers of appointment fell only one vote short of the requisite two-thirds. The lesson to Mr. Yeltsin is that he can maintain his support only by alliances with centrist groups in the Congress. A dispute is already raging among Western (and Russian) pundits on whether Mr. Yeltsin is thereby surrendering his whole reform program or simply making prudent tactical compromises in order to keep the essence of the reforms intact. We lean (cautiously) to the latter view.

We see no reason to alter our long-standing opinion that the West's duty is the same regardless: to continue to insist on serious reform and a constructive foreign policy as a condition for aid. We do Mr. Yeltsin no favor by easing the counter-pressure we furnish on these issues. At some point, the back-tracking may have gone too far. Not yet, we think. Indeed, we share the judgment of Richard Nixon and others that the West has given too little material support to the dramatic revolution that Mr. Yeltsin represents. By this we have helped undercut him. It is perverse, for example, to continue to burden democratic Russia with all the debts incurred by its retrograde predecessor; debt relief should have been a more substantial part of the Western aid package all along (a need dramatized in recent weeks by embarrassing Russian defaults on about $20 million in agricultural loans).

At least one plus in the parliamentary process is the sight of Russians taking responsibility for their own fate. While the West ought to help more, we resist any notion that the massive problems are ours to solve. No more than in the case of any other handout recipient do we accept that the basic problems are the responsibility of the donor. If a "Who Lost Russia?" debate begins--and there are those trying to start one already--we will make that point.