John Kerry: “indeed it would be wonderful if we could trade more with Russia. I think Ambassador Talbott is certainly struggling to…”

“indeed it would be wonderful if we could trade more with Russia. I think Ambassador Talbott is certainly struggling to see that happen. But it is very clear also that Russia has serious economic problems--not to mention the political problems that it has--including the lack of a means of production, the lack of convertibility in currency, and the lack of a banking structure. A host of decisions which he, and others, have encouraged President Yeltsin to try to make obviously were not made, not because Ambassador Talbott did not want them to be made, not because they were not suggesting them, but because President Yeltsin has had trouble getting any decisions made with a Parliament that was unwilling to make them because it was filled with the very people that the Senator from Colorado most despises. So I think that in fact Ambassador Talbott and Secretary Christopher and President Clinton deserve enormous credit for walking an extraordinarily complex, difficult, line. The fact is that reform is going to come extremely slowly in the former Soviet Union. And I think many of us anticipate that there may be far more difficult days before there are good days. The fact is also that Ambassador Talbott had an extremely important view that in fact helped to mold the policy of the Partnership for Peace and conceivably restrained us from moving in a direction that might have worked contrary to the very reforms that the Senator from Colorado wants.”