Yeltsin meets with Chirac after skipping summit show
June 22, 1997
Web posted at: 1:28 p.m. EDT (1728 GMT)DENVER (CNN) -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin met with French President Jacques Chirac Sunday, one day after an exhausted Yeltsin skipped an evening entertainment program at the Summit of the Eight countries.
"I decided not to go to the concert because I was tired, and I returned to the hotel to sleep," Yeltsin told Chirac, speaking in Russian.
Yeltsin appeared tired Sunday, but Chirac greeted him heartily, saying, "You really made a wise decision last night not to come, because Hashimoto fell asleep." Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and other world leaders attending the summit were at the entertainment.
Later, Yeltsin said he watched the show on television, and he thanked Chirac for the French military operation in the Republic of Congo.
"You really made a wise decision last night not to come, because (Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro) Hashimoto fell asleep."
— French President Jacques Chirac to Russian President Boris Yeltsin
Aides said Yeltsin returned Saturday night to the hotel where the Russian delegation is staying during the summit of industrialized nations, which ends Sunday. Yeltsin, who has a doctor traveling with him, was told to rest, the aides said.
"This has all been stressful. He's tired because of the stress, the temperature, the altitude. It's not so easy for someone of his age or for any age," said Sergei Yostrzhebsky, Yeltsin's spokesman Sunday morning at the hotel.
He said Yeltsin, 66, was fine.
Stephanie Denning, spokeswoman for Denver Health Medical Center, said the hospital was put on alert late Saturday and asked by someone from the Russian delegation to make an ambulance available.
"His personal physician took care of everything, and we didn't have to step in, thankfully," she said. "They just told us he wasn't feeling well."
Yeltsin's stature grows
While Yeltsin's health has been in question -- the Russian leader underwent heart surgery during the past year -- his government has grown in stature on the world stage.
At this summit, as in others, Yeltsin works as part of a duo. He used to be part of the "Boris and Bill" show, as Clinton and Yeltsin joked around.
Now, Yeltsin is part of a good cop-bad cop team, playing the good guy against Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, a former top Russian spy.
Yeltsin could barely conceal the glee he felt upon learning that Russia had been voted into the Paris Club of creditor nations.
In contrast, his foil brooks no nonsense. When asked if Russia cut any deals to win its place at the table of the Eight, Primakov sternly replied, "We do not make deals. ... There is no linkage between our participation in the G-8 and our position on principle."
Primakov is equally dour on NATO relations. What would Russia do if NATO was so bold as to invite former Soviet republics like the Baltic nations to join, he was asked.
"If NATO really expands at the expense of former Soviet republics, it will force us to look again at the whole system of relations with NATO," he replied.
The Russian delegation's behavior is a far cry from its first bumbling days, when Yeltsin was on probation at the G-7 rather than just a smidgen away from full membership.
The team has done its job well, getting Yeltsin to rub shoulders with American business heavyweights even though he runs a country that still has only primitive roads and a shaky telephone system -- a country where the life expectancy for men has sunk below 60 years.
Yeltsin's ascendancy could well have more to do, however, with Western desires to have him on board than with anything he's done to meet the membership criteria for the snazzy club of the world's richest nations.
Correspondent Steve Hurst contributed to this report.
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- Russian leader basks at summit's head table - June 20, 1997
- World leaders use summit for political recharge - June 20, 1997
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- Attending Summit, Clinton Touts U.S. Economy - June 19, 1997
- Yeltsin upbeat as world leaders convene economic summit - June 19, 1997
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