Yeltsin Says Clinton Could Blunder Into a World War

(New York Times Feb 5 1998)

By MICHAEL SPECTER

MOSCOW -- In remarks that seemed to astonish everyone but the man who delivered them, Russian President Boris Yeltsin warned Wednesday that U.S. activities in Iraq could lead to a world war.

"One must be careful in a world that is saturated with all kinds of weapons," Yeltsin said in televised remarks during a meeting in the Kremlin. "By his actions Clinton might get into a world war. They are acting too loudly. Too loudly."

Even among those for whom Yeltsin's gaffes have become routine, the reaction to the outburst was swift and startling. Coming only a day after other Russian leaders and the press here claimed that the United States was planning to drop nuclear weapons on Baghdad, world financial markets plunged briefly after Yeltsin's comments.

The president's spokesman attempted to blame the reaction on a "ridiculous and absurd interpretation" by the American press, although Yeltsin spoke clearly and his words would be hard to misinterpret. Most remarkable of all, the State Department, through its Moscow embassy, felt the need to issue a long and detailed statement disavowing any plans to use nuclear weapons in Iraq.

"The press reports that the U.S. is planning to use nuclear weapons to destroy chemical or biological weapons storage facilities in Iraq have no basis in fact," the statement said. "The U.S. has no plans or intentions of using nuclear weapons against Iraq. We are well aware of the enormous implications of using nuclear weapons."

The statement was crafted, at least in part, because U.S. Ambassador James Collins was called into Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov's office and lectured about the horrors of nuclear weapons. That was after the Russian press, which has been blindly partisan in support of the Yeltsin administration, printed rumors that the United States planned to use nuclear force in Iraq.

The State Department statement went on to say that "if any nation were foolish enough to attack the U.S., our allies or our forces with chemical or biological weapons, our response would be swift, devastating and overwhelming."

Yeltsin often makes statements that are blatantly inaccurate, and recently the frequency and seriousness of these remarks has increased. But his sharp attack Wednesday, eerily reminiscent of the Soviet statements during the Cold War, seemed to many people to be more than a simple error.

"We understand national interest, and we understand principled opposition to any position, including our own," said one U.S. diplomat who requested anonymity. "But he has not helped anyone by doing this. Diplomacy is not helped, the cause of peace is not helped and I don't believe that Russia is helped, either."

Yeltsin has long opposed any military solution to the confrontation between the U.N. weapons inspectors and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Iraq is one of the only places left in the world where Russia has a powerful influence. Just two days ago the Kremlin announced that it had brokered what it considered a diplomatic resolution to the confrontation. Within hours in a humiliating blow to Russia's ability to influence world events, Iraqi officials said there was no such deal at all.

Russia and the United States have repeatedly disagreed on how to force Saddam to permit U.N. inspections, which are necessary to certify that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction and thus eligible for the relief of economic sanctions. As U.S. leaders have increasingly stated their position in terms of impending war, the Russians have become almost frantic in opposition.

Wednesday, one Russian chemical weapons expert, Anatoly Kunsevich, said that much of the problem in Iraq was due to the professional incompetence of the weapons inspectors there. The inspectors have been denied access to sites that they believe may contain materials to make chemical and biological weapons.

"These people are mainly diplomats who cannot draw accurate conclusions about the places they have inspected," Kunsevich said, giving voice to a frequent complaint here.

Yeltsin, in his brief remarks Wednesday, emphasized that Russia has done all it can to resolve the crisis peacefully. He spoke Wednesday on the telephone with French President Jacques Chirac and with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In addition, Primakov spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

According to reports in Thursday's issue of Izvestia, Primakov told a closed meeting of parliamentary officials Tuesday that most Europeans leaders are against military action but too afraid of the United States to say so in public.

Sergei Yastrzhembsky, Yeltsin's press spokesman, lashed out at the press for their reporting, and said, "Judging from my own experience, some of the American reporters working in Moscow traditionally have serious problems with the Russian language."