Albright Arrives For Talks In Russia

As Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrived here on Thursday for a first round of talks with Russian leaders, American officials sought to lower expectations about any quick Russian acquiescence to NATO expansion. Albright brings a package of proposals designed to convince Moscow that an expanded NATO is not aggressive, and can produce a Europe with fewer weapons facing the Russians than now.

But she was welcomed here with unremittingly negative public statements from Russian officials like Boris Berezovsky, the deputy secretary of Russia’s National Security Council. In a front-page article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, he said that NATO expansion “is a totally aggressive decision with regard to Russia that is also exceptionally dangerous for the West itself.” In a radio interview on Thursday night, Berezovsky said that Russia would have to react to NATO enlargement “in the direction of defense,” adding: “The enlargement decision is a decision to live separately from Russia.”

During a press conference on Thursday with another visiting NATO foreign minister, Lamberto Dini, Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov said: “Russia has a negative position on NATO expansion and will continue to hold this position.” But Primakov was described as genial and engaged in his private discussions on Thursday with Albright, prompting a detailed discussion of what NATO is proposing and of its aims. Albright said on Thursday night that her first meetings with Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Primakov had gone well, but there would be more to come today, together with the first meeting of an American official with President Boris Yeltsin since July.