Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Ambassador to return as a voice for Russia Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 14:59:57 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Ambassador to return as a voice for Russia \BY Bryan Brumley \CR ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT MOSCOW MOSCOW - When Bob Strauss heads home this week, America won't so much be losing an ambassador to Moscow as gaining a new one from Russia. "I am going to try to have an influence on this place. I want to do something productive," said the former Democratic National Committee chairman, who arrived during the failed coup in August 1991 and got hooked on Russia. Mr. Strauss said when he gets back to Washington, he wants to enlarge on the main accomplishment of his 14 months in Moscow: persuading Americans to give financial backing to President Boris Yeltsin's market reforms. A less public achievement has been schooling Mr. Yeltsin and his acting prime minister, Yegor Gaidar, in the intricacies of U.S. politics. After coaching by the master politician from Texas, Mr. Yeltsin received numerous standing ovations from a Congress that previously was wary of him. Mr. Yeltsin's performance in Washington helped pass legislation authorizing U.S. support for the West's $24 billion Russian aid package. The Strauss style has been markedly different from those of previous U.S. ambassadors to Moscow, who concentrated on diplomatic reporting and trying to spread American influence among the elite. Mr. Strauss, 74, loves to lay on his earthy Texas idiom, mixing outlandish boasting with a self-deprecating humor, regularly telling listeners that "it ain't braggin' if you done it." He continued a lifelong practice of courting the press, often with a glass of vodka in hand at news briefings. He spoke no Russian. On the advice of Russian friends, he concentrated his attentions on a dozen or so political leaders. For a time, that meant balancing between Mr. Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev, whose Communist government collapsed after the attempted coup by hard-liners. Some Russians not on the Strauss list cite his approach to the job as justification for their own anti-Americanism. "I haven't met him," said Iona Andronov, vice chairman of the Russian legislature's Foreign Affairs Committee. As for U.S. aid, Miss Andronov said sarcastically: "All the aid was stolen. Maybe Mr. Gaidar got some of it." Miss Andronov's hostility to Mr. Yeltsin's reforms, and to the United States, is typical of a large minority - perhaps even a majority - of Russian legislators and bureaucrats. But it does not reflect the official attitude, said Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Foreign Ministry spokesman. He said Mr. Strauss "talks to us." "We find his advice very helpful. We are pleased that such a significant American political figure was sent here as the U.S. ambassador, and can see its effects on U.S. policy," Mr. Yastrzhembsky said. Almost certainly, the ambassador has had more impact in Washington than in Moscow. As a prominent Democrat appointed by a Republican administration, Mr. Strauss "brought his recommendations to the president and was key in getting the [aid] legislation through," said Arthur Hartman, the U.S. envoy to Moscow in the mid-1980s and now a consultant in Washington. Mr. Strauss acknowledges, "I am terribly disappointed that I have not been able to make any progress with the parliament" in persuading its members to concentrate on private foreign investment rather than government-to-government aid. "I have tried to convince them that, when that capital comes in, it won't buy your assets and go home," he said. "But I have not been able to get them to deal with legislation affecting property rights, real or intellectual, a tax structure that the West can feel comfortable with in terms of income or tax on exports. . . . That has been a terrible frustration for me." Mr. Strauss, who was nervous about taking the job because of his scant knowledge of Soviet affairs, has seen more changes than any ambassador since the United States and Soviet Union established diplomatic ties in 1933. "As fate would have it," he said, "I arrived here on the second or third day of the coup - much earlier than I had planned to come - and realized within a few days that none of my weaknesses were relevant, or going to be relevant, and the strengths that I brought to the job were going to be critical." When he had been in Moscow only a few days, Mr. Strauss squeezed his way to the front of a huge crowd next to the Kremlin to address a memorial service for three Russians killed in the coup attempt. He was the only foreigner to speak, and the effect was electrifying. His down-home charm and hard-charging approach lifted spirits at the U.S. Embassy, which had been shaken by spy and bugging scandals and a catastrophic fire in March 1991. Most evenings, Mr. Strauss is on the telephone jawboning American congressmen and administration officials. During many lunch hours, he can be found in the embassy cafeteria chatting with staff members. Mr. Strauss has used his position to promote U.S. investment in Russia, encouraging American businessmen and bankers to travel to remote corners of the country seeking investment opportunities. He also has butted heads with American and Russian bureaucrats. Soon after he arrived in Moscow, Mr. Strauss delights in recalling, he discovered that the security people would not allow his wife, Helen, into his office. He got on the telephone to Lawrence Eagleburger, then deputy secretary of state. "If Mother Teresa, the chairman of Pepsico, Billy Graham and a $30 hooker all showed up at the embassy, they'd all be turned away for the same reason: security," Mr. Strauss said he told Mr. Eagleburger. Mr. Eagleburger paused before answering, "Which one do you want to let in?" Now Mr. Strauss invites anyone he wants into his office. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. 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