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Your October 21-23 visit to Moscow - Key foreign policy issues [1]
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Date: 2023-03
Description
Chargé d’Affaires and future Ambassador to Russia James Collins sends Secretary Christopher a briefing cable in advance of his visit to Moscow where he is expected to meet with Yeltsin and Kozyrev. This is the first visit of any Western senior official to Moscow after Yeltsin’s dissolution of the Parliament and October confrontation with the hardline faction of the parliament that resulted in bloodshed in the center of Moscow. New elections are scheduled for December and Yeltsin needs all the support from the West he can get. Collins advises the secretary of state to be sensitive to Yeltsin’s and Kozyrev’s need for Russia to be seen domestically as a partner with whom the West consults and does not just take for granted, and he lists some controversial issues: NATO expansion, the post-Soviet space, and Ukraine.
On NATO, Collins notes that the Russians are aware that the U.S. internal debate is reaching a crucial moment about expansion and want to be assured that the door is open to Russia, not just to East Europeans. In Collins’ view, “what the Russians hope to hear from you is that NATO is not moving precipitously and that any policy NATO adopts will apply equally to them.” Their “neuralgic” attitude stems from the fear that they will “end up on the wrong side of a new division of Europe.” Therefore, Collins counsels Christopher to make sure the Russians know that the U.S. is actively promoting Russia’s "complete reintegration into the family of Western states.”
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[1] Url:
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/16378-document-06-your-october-21-23-visit-moscow
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