CLINTON, (“BILL”) WILLIAM JEFFERSON

Clinton, (“Bill”) William Jefferson: translation

(1946– )

American politician. With little foreign policy experience, the former governor of Arkansas and 42nd president of theUnited StatesBill Clinton tended to focus on his personal relationship withBoris Yeltsinin U.S.-Russia relations. Far from being a micromanager offoreign relations, Clinton delegated key policy decisions to subordinates, especially Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, who was known colloquially as the “Russian hand.” Clinton often leveraged his strong personal bond with Yeltsin to encourage Yeltsin to accept American policies that were deeply unpopular in Russia.

On Clinton’s watch, the United States strongly advocatedshock therapyfor the Russianeconomy, expanded theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) into the formerEastern Blocand ultimately up to Russia’s borders, and bombedSerbia, a traditional Russian ally and fellowOrthodoxcountry in defense ofMuslimBosnians and Kosovars. Clinton, who was generally more focused on domestic economic concerns than foreign affairs, steadfastly backed Yeltsin during his darkest hours, including the violentconstitutional crisis of 1993, the firstChechen War, and the president’s frequent bouts of erratic behavior brought on byalcoholism.

In 1994, Clinton directed his vice president, Al Gore, to collaborate with Prime MinisterViktor Chernomyrdinon an expansive reworking of Russo-American ties, which established a working relationship on issues such asenvironmentalism,foreign tradeandinvestment, energy, security, and promotion ofdemocracy.The relationship between Clinton and Yeltsin became somewhat frayed in the last year of the 1990s as theruble crisisforced Yeltsin to purge his cabinet of economic reformers and pro-WesternAtlanticistsand stack it with nationalists and strong statists likeYevgeny Primakov. Disputes over the situation inKosovoand the prospective admission of theBaltic Statesinto NATO proved especially controversial in Russia. Clinton’s own political weakness—both as a lame duck and the target of impeachment hearings over his sexual relationship with an intern—limited his ability to sway Russia on these issues. Following the precipitous departure of Yeltsin from national politics in 2000, Clinton had few levers of influence in Moscow.Vladimir Putin, realizing he had nothing to gain from embracing the disgraced Clinton, received him coldly and waited for his successor to be determined and then inaugurated.

Clinton, along with his predecessorGeorge H.W.Bush, attended Yeltsin’s funeral in 2007.