Clinton Meets With Yeltsin, Offers Russia $1 Billion in Aid : Diplomacy: President pledges to mobilize international help for Russia the way the U.S. assembled allies before Gulf War. Talks continue today.

VANCOUVER, Canada —  President Clinton on Saturday offered a $1 billion aid package for Russia and vowed to mobilize world support for more massive assistance as he and President Boris N. Yeltsin met in the first U.S-Russian summit without control of nuclear weapons on its agenda.

The American aid package, covering Ukraine and other parts of the former Soviet Union, was designed as much to help the beleauguered Russian leader weather a potentially disastrous political storm as to shore up the shattered Russian economy, Clinton Administration officials acknowledged.

Yeltsin himself, referring to his own precarious political position, warned that his old Communist foes are seeking revenge against him and threatening “to take us back to the past.” But he declared that as long as he is in power, Russia will remain on the course of economic and democratic reform.

The initial summit sessions were “very good” and Clinton “was very pleased by the atmosphere of openness and candor,” said George Stephanopoulos, White House communications director. He said Clinton “just has a great personal feeling for President Yeltsin” and that “he likes Yeltsin, he’s a fighter. He likes that . . . he’s not deterred by long odds.”

Yeltsin declared he would continue to fight for reforms, despite the vehement opposition of Communists in the Russian Congress of People’s Deputies. Stephanopoulos said Clinton “admires that.”

Although the Communists failed in their attempt to impeach Yeltsin, they continue to be formidable foes, and when reporters here asked Clinton whether the Russian president faced any risk in coming to the summit, he said: “I hope not. It will be a good thing for both of us and our country.”

Since the first U.S.-Soviet summit was held in September, 1959, between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev, control of nuclear weapons and the avoidance of another world war have dominated each of the 25 superpower summits.

But with the breakup of the Soviet empire and the emergence of Russia as an independent state, those issues have begun to fade. The Vancouver summit is focusing largely on Russia’s economic and political problems.

The two presidents are expected to discuss national security issues at a final summit session today, however, and though Administration officials say economic and political matters will dominate that discussion, arms controls remains a potential topic for negotiation.

In his weekly radio address to the nation Saturday, Clinton pointed out that Russia, although no longer a superpower in the American mold, still holds more than 20,000 strategic and tactical nuclear warheads; it is necessary, he said, to continue implementing historic arms control agreements to reduce the level of the nuclear weapons.

The United States, he said, spent more than $4 trillion to wage the Cold War and can now “reduce that spending because the arms and the armies of the former Soviet Union pose a greatly reduced threat to us and to our allies.”

If Russia was to revert to its old ways or plunge into chaos, he said, America would need to reassess its plans for defense savings and that could jeopardize the United States economy.

Clinton predicted a strong build-up of international support for Russian aid over the next several weeks. He said it is important that the efforts be designed to support economic and democratic reform that will not only benefit Russians but help the security of the contributing nations.

“I want America to act, but America cannot and should not act alone,” Clinton declared. “Just as we mobilized the world on behalf of war in the Gulf, we must now mobilize the world on behalf of peace and reform in Russia.”

The United States is pressing for more economic aid by the other Group of Seven industrialized nations--Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan--and the issue will be discussed at a meeting of officials of these nations in Tokyo April 14-15. Further action is expected when the heads of state meet at the annual economic summit in Tokyo in early July.

Clinton told Yeltsin that he had conferred with Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa by telephone Friday night and that Miyazawa assured him he would play a constructive role in the talks on Russian aid. Miyazawa’s support was considered crucial in the effort to secure solid support for Russia among the industrialized nations. American officials said Yeltsin was pleased by Clinton’s assurance.

In Clinton’s first major role on the international stage, the 46-year-old President told reporters: “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. . . . “

The 62-year-old Yeltsin, who upon meeting Clinton last year during the presidential campaign exclaimed, “Oh, how young you are,” apparently quickly established a good rapport with him at the summit.

The Russian was “getting along with him like a house afire” said Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who attended a lunch with the two leaders.

The discussion at the meal, at the Norman MacKenzie House at the University of British Columbia, focused largely on Yeltsin’s political situation and his evaluation of his chances of victory in the Russian referendum, scheduled for April 25, Mulroney said.

Yeltsin, who like Clinton thrives on politics, indicated he would be “barnstorming all the way till the 25th of April,” Mulroney said. Yeltsin apparently had given great thought to the matter and gave an analysis of what percentage of the vote it would take for him to survive the referendum. While Yeltsin’s analysis was not disclosed, Russian experts in the American government say they believe that Yeltsin will survive politically if at least 55% of Russian voters turn out and he polls at least 55% of the vote.

Robert S. Strauss, who served as ambassador to Russia in the George Bush Administration, recalled that Bush and Yeltsin “got along exceedingly well” and said he believes Clinton is quickly developing a similar relationship.

Strauss, in Vancouver as a Cable News Network analyst for the summit, praised Clinton and his Administration for the way they have supported Yeltsin and the Russian reform program. He said Clinton probably would rather be in Washington taking care of domestic problems but realizes the stakes in U.S.-Russian relations are so large it is “a responsibility he cannot duck.”

Even as he sought to help Yeltsin politically, Clinton faced political problems in Washington, where Republicans continued to block his $16.3-billion jobs-creation legislation. Democrats failed Saturday for a second day to end a Republican filibuster against the measure; there were signs that Clinton, who was being kept abreast of developments, might compromise to break the deadlock.

Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.), a Clinton friend, but a conservative who has been seeking to moderate the jobs bill, said he had been in touch with White House officials and believed they are “now willing to listen to compromise proposals.”

Clinton, in addressing Russia’s problems, said he felt under no pressure, that he welcomed “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 . . . 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.”

He noted that, while it was well over a decade after the Declaration of Independence in 1776 that Americans settled on a Constitution and elected their first President, the Russians are undergoing three fundamental changes at once: moving from a communist to a market economy, from a dictatorship to a democracy and from having a great empire to being an independent nation-state.