Rutskoy, the Space Joke, and the Management of Boris Yeltsin
A working dinner in Vancouver was kept secret for decades, masking a strategic preference for Russian autocracy behind a veneer of first-name chemistry.
By Vera Kessler ·
Boris Yeltsin
Yeltsin and the 1993 Vancouver Script for a Russian Partnership
Clinton and Yeltsin coordinated a facade of unanimity while the U.S. used aid packages to coerce Russian compliance on North Korea and Iraq, a transaction hidden from the public for years.
By Eleanor Voss ·
Boris Yeltsin and the October 1993 Price of US Support
A diplomatic cable kept secret for years shows the US preparing to validate a Russian leader who had just turned tanks on his own parliament to secure his grip on power
By Vera Kessler ·
Bill Clinton and the 1994 Bid to Brand Boris Yeltsin
A one-on-one meeting in the Kremlin, kept from public view for decades, shows the U.S. treating the Russian presidency as a PR project to be managed after a populist surge
By Marcus Boone ·
Boris Yeltsin and the 46-Minute Performance in Birmingham
Facing a legislative revolt and a collapsing image, Boris Yeltsin begged Bill Clinton to hide the cracks in their relationship during a May 1998 summit.
By Eleanor Voss ·
Boris Yeltsin and the Vancouver Deal to Buy Russian Officers out of Tents
For thirty years, the one-on-one session between Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin remained blacked out, hiding the price of stability in a collapsing superpower
By Desmond Okafor ·
Lynn Davis and the 2005 Promise to Russia
The blueprint for expanding NATO was built on a gamble that Boris Yeltsin's public pivot in Warsaw was a permanent shift, a bet that left Eastern Europe caught in a strategic void.
By Roy Castellano ·
Boris Yeltsin and the 65 Russians Held Hostage to a Nuclear Swap
A list of 65 trapped citizens and the threat of sanctions over Indian missiles defined a 1993 Tokyo summit, where a facade of friendship masked a cold transactional hunger for nuclear warheads.
By Eleanor Voss ·
Boris Yeltsin's Nuclear Surrender and a Tokyo Cable's Hidden Price
Russia traded its nuclear leverage for vague promises of cooperation while Boris Yeltsin dismissed a domestic crisis that threatened his grip on power, a transactional asymmetry hidden in a 1993 cable.
By Eleanor Voss ·
Yeltsin's 'Highly Qualified' Agent and the 1999 Handover
A 1999 phone call details the arrangement that placed a security chief in the Kremlin, shielded for years by a pact to ignore the "domestic cards" of human rights and corruption.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Yeltsin and the 1993 Price of Western Validation
Boris Yeltsin shelled his own parliament to seize absolute power, but the U.S. spent the following days calculating how to treat the survivor as a partner while debating the expansion of NATO.
By Roy Castellano ·
Yumashev and the Predetermined Presidency of Vladimir Putin
A 1999 cable, summarized in an archival finding aid, captures the moment the Kremlin began coaching the U.S. on the managed ascent of a former intelligence officer.
By Marcus Boone ·
Yeltsin and the Three-Month Window to Install Putin
A ten-minute call on the final day of 1999 reveals the calculated handoff of a superpower to a former intelligence officer under the guise of a courageous resignation.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Yeltsin Asked Clinton for $2.5 Billion Loan for 1996 Election
Russian pensions and wages hung in the balance as Boris Yeltsin pleaded for a massive American infusion of cash to secure his grip on power before the 1996 vote.
By Marcus Boone ·
Yeltsin Sold Access to His Office for $30,000
Democratic reformers in 1992 found their path blocked by Party elites who traded Communist badges for capitalist ledgers while the president auctioned his time.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Russian Submarines Nearly Triggered Catastrophe in 1993
Sailors nearly died in a 1993 submarine collision and a report on biological warfare remains blacked out, according to records of a 1994 summit.
By Roy Castellano ·