Bill Clinton: “I don't feel under any pressure. I'm glad that this day has arrived. I welcome the chance that the United States has to…”

“I don't feel under any pressure. I'm glad that this day has arrived. I welcome the chance that the United States has to support the millions of courageous people in Russia who have stood up for democracy and have had the courage to go through some very difficult times and, I might add, to support the people in the other newly independent states of the former Soviet Union who are going through equally difficult economic times and striving hard for democracy. I welcome that opportunity. The only unanswered questions I have are the same ones that you have. I don't know what's going to happen. None of us do. But I think that, I would just remind you all--it's something I said in my speech at Annapolis--in 1776 the United States adopted the Declara- tion of Independence. It was well over a decade before we actually settled on a Constitution and got around to electing a President. And the Russians are trying to undertake three fundamental changes at once: moving from a Communist to a market economy; moving from a tyrannical dictatorship to a democracy; and moving to an independent nation state away from having a great empire. And these are very difficult and unsettling times. But I think that the direction is clear, the direction that they ought to take, and I think we ought to support the direction. And I'm not troubled by the fact that I can't control that process or that I don't know the outcome of it. We just need to weigh in and do what we can to do what's right.”