Bill Clinton: “No, because on balance, we've gotten a lot more progress out of this nuclear relationship with the Russians than this…”

“No, because on balance, we've gotten a lot more progress out of this nuclear relationship with the Russians than this one setback would indicate, number one. And number two, he didn't say one thing and do another here. I mean, he publicly said what they were going to do, so there's no evidence of dishonesty on the part of the Russian position whatever. I just think they're wrong. But if you compare that action, which I disagree with, with Yeltsin's detargeting the missiles, with putting START I into effect, with his support for START II, with his willingness to accelerate further our reduction and mutual efforts to reduce the nuclear threat, with the support that he's given us for the indefinite extension of the NPT, with the work that they have done with us to increase the security of nuclear materials in the last year--when you add up all the things that have been done and the things that Russia has committed to do in this treaty going forward, including supporting the zero-yield comprehensive test ban, supporting the effort to end ocean dumping, supporting the convention on radioactive waste management, the answer is, this one thing that I strongly disagree with does not come close to outweighing the benefits that we've gotten out of this relationship. As I said, there are--Russia is not the only country that believes that they're just giving Iran the same technology that we've already approved for North Korea in terms of generating nuclear power. The difference is we're bringing North Korea down; they will bring Iran up by some marginal capacity to deal with and understand nuclear technology and continue to build toward nuclear capacity. And we believe, notwithstanding what they say to the contrary, that they want to have the ability to produce weapons. So we think it's a very serious thing. Russian Elections”