ABSTRACT
Accompanying the decline in growth was a fall in the standard of living for the average Russian, which Yeltsin promoted by criticizing the Duma in October for rejecting the government's reduction of social benefits, which were already at an abysmally low level. Foreign policy was another matter, and the crucial nature of issues which required more immediate resolution, above all, NATO expansion, dictated a less ingenuous approach. During and after the negotiations on the Russia-NATO treaty Russian and Western leaders made frequent reference to the contemplated quid pro quo: in exchange for Russian acquiescence to NATO expansion, the West would make such "concessions" as Russian membership in the G-7 and the Paris Club, additional financial aid, and so on. Because the Yugoslavia issue lost its immediacy after the 1995 Dayton Accords, Russian officials in 1997 were reduced, as in 1996, to complaining that they had been left out of deliberations and other perceived slights.
