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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (12555)	6/21/1999 5:25:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

Stiff Yeltsin Grins Away Questions At Summit COLOGNE, Germany, Jun 21, 1999 -- (Reuters) "Many, many, many, many, many questions," a grinning Boris Yeltsin intoned on Sunday, holding his arms wide in an expansive gesture. He was referring to the content of talks with U.S. President Bill Clinton at the Cologne summit of the Group of Eight -- the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries plus Russia. His stiff, puffy-faced and tottering appearance and brief and simple public utterances left many questions unanswered -- such as how far the ruler of the world's biggest territory and commander of its second biggest arsenal was master of his own actions, let alone the levers of power in Moscow. From the slow descent from his Ilyushin jet on the arm of his wife Naina to his departure eight hours later on the final day of a summit that had lasted three days for the other world leaders, the 68-year-old president cut a figure of less than total health but seemed determined to put on a good show. As aides tried to shepherd him into the waiting limousine at the airport, the tall and bulky Kremlin leader spied reporters and brushed them aside. Helped by a bodyguard he delivered his key message for the day, that East and West must "make up after our fight" over the war in Yugoslavia. Stepping from a hotel to another waiting car, his personal doctor hovering in attendance, he shook off anxious officials again to sign a slightly shaky autograph, losing his balance briefly as he did so before being caught. A bear hug for a slightly discomfited German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder looked as if Yeltsin, whose drama-filled decade in power is due to end next year, was seeking support. In Moscow, officials concede Yeltsin's workload is limited and reports of palace intrigues among ambitious advisers and members of his family are legion. Sitting with fellow leaders, he engaged in a bit of playful arm-wrestling with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Yeltsin, who had a quintuple heart bypass in 1996 and has had a series of other ailments, seemed keen to show off his strength. His allies rallied round as they have done so often in the past -- as they did when he stood up a prime minister by failing mysteriously to get off a plane or leapt to conduct a military band after a champagne lunch in Berlin. "I thought he was very much in charge," said White House National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, who sat across the table from Yeltsin at an hour-long meeting between Clinton and the Russian leader. "I thought he seemed strong, in good humor." "He looked robust," said Berger, adding that he believed it was one of the best ever meetings between the two men. "He walked a bit stiffly, but he was very forceful -- the fist was pounding." Yet on his first trip since a flying visit to Jordan for King Hussein's funeral in February and an illness-curtailed tour of Central Asia last autumn, Yeltsin's own advisers seemed happy simply that he should make the journey and return on schedule. "Thank God, it went well. We're very happy. The president feels fine," one said. "He didn't have any major problems." ((c) 1999 Reuters)

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (12555)	6/21/1999 5:27:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

The poll identified one potential problem for Bush. In a section that asked voters to offer responses off the top of their heads when hearing the names of leading candidates, 11 percent of respondents identified Bush as the ex-U.S. president. Bush's father, George Bush, was president from 1989 to 1992. quote.bloomberg.com

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (12555)	6/21/1999 6:09:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

Russia Flexes Muscles in Caucasus 1939 GMT, 990621 In the wake of a series of clashes between Armenian and Azeri forces last week and over the weekend, Baku has charged Moscow with destabilizing the Caucasus in a deliberate attempt to keep Azerbaijan under Russian influence. The Azeri Defense Ministry specifically condemned Russia for supplying arms to Armenia, arguing that this helped fuel the recent clashes. As if to underscore Baku's charges, four Russian MiG-29 fighter aircraft arrived in Yerevan on June 21, part of a Russian fighter group that, according to Armenian officials, is being deployed to Armenia in the context of a CIS air defense framework. However, Russia's decision to deploy the jets is far from a benign matter of collective defense, as some of the fighters have already overflown contested territory currently held by Azerbaijan. And further emphasizing the political message behind the Russian deployment, Moscow apparently chose not to alert Tbilisi before the latest four MiGs passed over Georgian territory. Russia may have been treated as politically and militarily impotent by the West throughout the Kosovo crisis, and have been successfully marginalized in the crisis' waning days, but Moscow is not ready to let the same thing occur on its own immediate periphery. Russia's current concern and area of direct competition with Western interests is the Caucasus region. There, CIS members Georgia and Azerbaijan have been daily sliding farther from Moscow's sway, while eagerly reaching to NATO to support them in their move. Both countries opted out of the CIS Collective Security Treaty and both are part of GUUAM, a regional organization of Western-oriented CIS members increasingly evolving from an economic cooperation forum to a NATO-affiliated security alliance. At stake is not only a significant portion of Russia's geographic buffer – and conduit – to the Middle East, but also an economically vital gateway to Central Asia's oil and gas reserves. With the true nature of its relations with the West brought into sharp focus during the Kosovo crisis, Russia appears to be moving quickly to stave off a similar outcome in the Caucasus. With NATO only beginning to develop relations in the region, Russia seems willing to go so far as to fuel conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and, according to previous reports, to back efforts to assassinate Georgia's president, in order to keep those relations from taking hold. info@stratfor.com stratfor.com