
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 9, 1993                   TAG: 9307090075
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: TOKYO                                LENGTH: Medium

RUSSIA WILL GET $3 BILLION CLINTON PERSUADES G-7 TO INCREASE AID

Russian President Boris Yeltsin will get a surprisingly large $3 billion aid package from the Group of Seven economic summit conference thanks largely to successful arm-twisting by President Clinton.

The summit had been expected to grant $2 billion in new aid to help Russia continue its progress toward becoming a market economy, but Clinton's persistence produced a 50 percent increase, administration officials announced Thursday.

"I think, based on where we were five or six weeks ago, this is a real success. I'm very pleased," Clinton said late Thursday.

In the spring, Clinton originally had sought a $4 billion Russian aid package, but his G-7 allies - Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and Canada - resisted giving so much, citing their own economic difficulties. No more than $2 billion was expected when the summit of the world's seven leading industrialized democracies opened Wednesday.

The $3 billion package is intended to help Russia privatize some of the mammoth state enterprises that were the bulwark of its centralized communist economy.

The aid package will consist of $500 million in direct aid from the G-7 countries, $1 billion in export credits to help Russia buy goods abroad, $1 billion in loans from the World Bank and other international lending agencies, and another $500 million from the World Bank for special impact aid to local areas in Russia suffering from conversion of the big state enterprises. The direct U.S. share would be $375 million.

Asked what U.S. taxpayers gain from the deal, Strobe Talbott, who coordinates Russia policy for the administration, said, "The premise of this administration's policy towards Russia is that this is an investment."

Clinton told reporters Thursday night that the Russian aid will be "also very good for America. I mean, there's lots of business to be done in Russia by Americans to create American jobs. This is a huge new market for American goods and services."

Russia has made immense progress on both the economic and political fronts since Clinton and Yeltsin met at Vancouver, British Columbia, in April. Yeltsin's reforms have cut inflation in half since January, and 60,000 small businesses have been privatized.

Yeltsin arrived in Tokyo on Thursday and attended a formal dinner with the G-7 leaders. "He's in a good humor tonight," Clinton said afterward, adding that he looks forward to longer talks with Yeltsin today and Saturday.

by CNB