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Salem Press

The 1990s in America

Russia and North America

by Thomas E. Rotnem

Definition Diplomatic, economic, and strategic relations between two former Cold War rivals

Relations between Russia and North America during the 1990’s principally dealt with issues related to the unraveling of the Soviet Union and its successor states’ desires to reform their economies and political systems, transform their foreign policies, and seek accommodation with the West, in general. As the largest successor state of the former Soviet Union and the inheritor of the Soviet Union’s nuclear weaponry, the Russian Federation was of enormous significance to American and Canadian national security interests as it moved toward a market-based economy and a democratic polity.

Since coming to power in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev had attempted to lead the Soviet Union toward a more open and market-oriented socialist system. During the 1990’s, U.S. president George H. W. Bush and the Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney generally supported Gorbachev’s reformist policies while he remained in power. However, his reform efforts failed because of their internal inconsistency and ineffectiveness, as well as strong conservative opposition. Ultimately, conservative reaction to the program led to an abortive coup d’état against the Gorbachev regime in August, 1991. As Gorbachev’s chief rival and the chief executive of the largest constituent unit of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin oversaw the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, edging Gorbachev out of any meaningful political role and inheriting as president of the newly created Russian Federation many of Gorbachev’s former powers and responsibilities.

As many of these processes unfolded, both the U.S. and Canadian governments sought to encourage a peaceful transformation of the Soviet state, while the United States continued negotiations with the Soviet Union over German reunification and restationing of Russian troops, strategic arms control, and economic assistance. To that end, the United States and the Soviet Union implemented the major provisions of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany on October 3, 1990, allowing for the formal reunification of East and West Germany, separated since the end of World War II. In addition, in July and August of 1991, Bush visited the Soviet Union and held a two-day summit with Gorbachev; at the closing meeting, the two leaders signed the first treaty of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START I), which committed the two sides to dramatic reductions in strategic, or long-range, nuclear missiles. As well, during the remaining months of the Gorbachev era, Bush and other Western leaders pledged billions of dollars in agricultural support credits in response to increasingly severe food shortages in the Soviet Union.

The West Supports Yeltsin’s Reforms

In the remaining year of their tenure as president and prime minister, Bush and Mulroney vigorously supported Yeltsin’s attempts to jettison half-baked economic reform measures and institute a sweeping transformation of the socialist economy, including the wholesale freeing of prices, the imposition of hard budget constraints on loss-making Russian enterprises, and an extensive privatization program for state-owned industry. Soon after introducing these reforms, Yeltsin met with Bush and Mulroney in their respective capitals, whereupon the two Western leaders initialed an agreement, Operation Provide Hope, that would supply former Soviet republics with international emergency assistance. In addition, the Bush and Yeltsin issued a joint statement proclaiming that their respective countries no longer viewed one another as potential adversaries.

At the June, 1992, summit in Washington, D.C., the two leaders signed additional agreements marking the definitive end of the Cold War. These dealt primarily with relaxing economic restrictions on trade and intensifying progress toward strategic nuclear arms cuts; however, both parties also signaled their intention to step up joint U.N. peacekeeping efforts in the Balkans, while also agreeing to send American Peace Corps volunteers to Russia for the first time. At the 1992 G7 (Group of Seven) meeting in Munich, Germany, the world’s seven most advanced, industrialized countries committed $1 billion in aid to Russia but linked this assistance to further progress toward economic reform, as progress toward implementation of the sweeping reform program was meeting significant resistance from conservative elements within the state bureaucracy, from enterprise and state farm directors, as well as from the burgeoning numbers of dispossessed within Russian society. In one of his last official acts as U.S. president, George H. W. Bush traveled to Moscow in January, 1993, to initial the START II agreement, which codified verbal agreements made the previous summer, formally committing Russia and the United States to reduce their strategic nuclear arsenals by over three thousand warheads.

The Clinton-Yeltsin Relationship Develops

As 1993 progressed, the new U.S. president, Bill Clinton, continued to pursue many of the same policies with regard to Russia that had been inaugurated by his predecessor. Indeed, at the Vancouver Summit between Clinton and Yeltsin, further commitments on arms control, economic and humanitarian assistance to Russia, and the promotion of democracy in Eastern Europe and the successor states of the former Soviet Union were signed by the two leaders. In addition, the Vancouver negotiations also achieved a novel agreement on U.S.-Russian technical cooperation in space, which witnessed the formation of a new U.S.-Russian commission headed by Vice President Al Gore and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.

The other seminal event of 1993 in the West’s developing relationship with Russia was the unwavering support that American and Canadian governments lent Yeltsin in his successful attempt to disperse communist and nationalist parliamentary rebels that had sought to overthrow his nascent regime. After shelling the Russian parliament and arresting the coup’s ringleaders, Yeltsin called for new elections and the passage of a new constitution that would favor heavily the victorious president. In general, the West rallied to support the embattled president, fearing a return to communist revanchism; throughout the fall, Clinton in particular supported Yeltsin in his successful attempt to persuade the Russian people to back the new constitutional framework in the upcoming December elections, arguing that Yeltsin’s moves were consistent with the democratic course. In the end, Yeltsin’s pro-presidential constitution narrowly passed; however, ultranationalist and communist parties fared very well in the parliamentary elections, as the Russian people grew weary with market reforms that produced severe social dislocations. Although heartened by the passage of the presidential constitution, American officials announced a rethinking of aid programs because of the strong showing of oppositional forces in the parliamentary elections.

Following these dramatic events, Clinton paid his first official visit to Moscow in January, 1994. Besides agreeing on further restationing of Russian troops in Eastern Europe, particularly the newly independent states of Estonia and Latvia, the two presidents agreed to no longer target their strategic nuclear missiles at each other’s country. Yeltsin also announced Russia’s intention to participate in the new Partnership for Peace program of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Immediately following this summit, the first joint U.S.-Russian space shuttle mission was launched, ushering in an era of greater cooperation between the two countries in space endeavors; this event was followed by other joint endeavors in the ensuing years, such as the successful docking of the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis with the Russian space station Mir in 1995 and the development and launching of the International Space Station’s control module in November, 1998.

Discord Surfaces

Despite several breakthroughs in the latter half of the 1990’s, including the January, 1996, ratification of START II by the U.S. Senate, the signing in May, 1997, of the NATO-Russia Founding Act (which deepened Russia’s involvement in the alliance’s political and military structures), and Russia’s formal joining of the G7 nations (now renamed the G8) in June, 1997, a growing divide began to plague the U.S.-Russian relationship during the second terms of Presidents Yeltsin and Clinton. Under pressure from vocal nationalist and communist opposition over NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe and its possible inclusion of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the three Baltic states of the former Soviet Union, Yeltsin was forced to decelerate progress toward greater Russian involvement in the military alliance. Added to these pressures were Russian objections over NATO’s and the United States’ intervention in the 1996-1999 conflict between Russian-backed Serbia and Kosovar Albanians over control of the autonomous Kosovo region. Moreover, many Russian political figures were distressed by continued U.S. calls for the removal of Russian troops from separatist regions in the newly independent, post-Soviet states of Moldova and Georgia, as well as from the Baltics.

In addition, the United States, Canada, and various European countries grew increasingly concerned over alleged human rights abuses committed by Russia in its renewed war with the renegade province of Chechnya in late 1999. As the frail and ailing Yeltsin prepared to bequeath his presidency to the newly appointed prime minister, Vladimir Putin, leading Western members (including Clinton) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the world’s largest regional security organization, criticized the outgoing president’s military conduct in the Chechen conflict. This added yet another layer of angst between Russia and Western nations.

Impact

The collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991 was arguably the seminal event in postwar history. The West’s major Cold War nemesis had imploded as a result of Gorbachev’s ineffective reforms, and its disintegration threatened major political, economic, and military turmoil in the region and world. The leaders of both Russia and the United States, as well as those of other major countries, were tasked with steering the post-Soviet states, particularly nuclear-armed Russia, on a path toward greater stability, which presupposed success toward the development of a market economy, a democratic political system, and a less confrontational foreign policy. Although the record of Russian reform in each of these areas met with both important successes as well as significant and consequential failures, history will undoubtedly demonstrate that the successive American and Russian administrations ultimately chartered a reasonably steady course through the precarious and troubled waters of the immediate post-Cold War era.

Further Reading

1 

Aron, Leon. Russia’s Revolution: Essays, 1989-2006. Washington, D.C.: AEI Press, 2007. Essays discuss major Russian reform efforts in the economic, political, and foreign policy realms.

2 

Powaski, Ronald E. Return to Armageddon: The United States and the Nuclear Arms Race, 1981-1999. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Includes extensive attention to disarmament and the START I and II agreements.

3 

Remington, Thomas F. Politics in Russia. 5th ed. New York: Longman, 2008. Presents a broad overview of the Soviet state, its collapse, and the course of reform, as well as chapters on Russian political culture, political party activity, legal reforms, and Russia’s place in the world.

4 

Shevtsova, Lilia. Yeltsin’s Russia: Myths and Reality. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1999. Examines the course of Russian reform during the Yeltsin era, focusing especially on his achievements and failures.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Rotnem, Thomas E. "Russia And North America." The 1990s in America, edited by Milton Berman, Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=1990_1479.
APA 7th
Rotnem, T. E. (2009). Russia and North America. In M. Berman (Ed.), The 1990s in America. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Rotnem, Thomas E. "Russia And North America." Edited by Milton Berman. The 1990s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2009. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.