Bill Clinton: “Well, of course, the package was not quite a $24 billion package. It was in theory that, over a long period of years.…”

“Well, of course, the package was not quite a $24 billion package. It was in theory that, over a long period of years. But if you go back and look at what was actually released, the Congress specifically appropriated $650 million in aid and an $800 million appropriation under the Nunn-Lugar bill to help to denuclearize Russia and the other nuclear Republics. Most of that money has not been spent yet. And I say that not as a criticism. Let me back up and say one of the places where we started this discussion, in-house here, is to ask ourselves, what happened to the policy that was announced last year? What money has been appropriated and spent? What has been approved, but not spent? What are the problems? Are there any problems where the United States has not followed through? Are there problems where there are bottlenecks or failures in Russia? Are there problems because we said in theory we would support a few billion dollars in aid through international institutions, but Russia can't comply right now with the eligibility requirements for the IMF, for example? We analyzed all that. And so, when we finally put together this package, which has not been done yet--I'm in the middle of congressional consultations and talking with people outside as well as inside the Government--we will have made an honest effort to assess what happened to the last proposal, what the problems were, how to get around them. And I can't yet tell you--we've not yet made a final decision on the dollar value, but I expect it will be broadbased and comprehensive. Bosnian Peace Agreement”