ABSTRACT
Post-Soviet Russia was still a new state when Bill Clinton first won the presidency in November 1992. Together with the other 14 republics of the Soviet Union, it had attained independence when the latter was dissolved in December 1991. Russia’s President, Boris Yeltsin, had played the pivotal role in engineering this dissolution. It had thus fallen to Clinton’s immediate predecessor to establish the initial parameters and content of US policy toward the new Russian state. A key feature of George H.W. Bush’s approach had been an emphasis on cultivating close personal relations at the highest level. During the Soviet Union’s last two years, Bush had thus prioritized his relationship with its then leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. He regularly described Gorbachev as a ‘friend’, as well as partner, in managing the (hopefully) peaceful winding down of the Cold War. Bush was sometimes criticized for this approach, with concerns being expressed that over-personalizing relations at the top might impair his administration’s ability and willingness to take an appropriately hard-headed approach to pursuing US interests in dealings with the erstwhile Cold War adversary. 1
