CONFIDENTIAL 2137 THE WHITE HOUSE DECLASSIFIED PER E 0 13526 WASH INGTON MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE ao T­ 3 7 2 01 vm CONVERSATION SUBJECT TeleconwithPresident­elect Putinof Russia PARTICIPANTS The President Russian President­elect Vladimir Putin Interpreter PeterAfanasenko Notetakers Roger Merletti Don Gentile JoelEhrendreich MiguelAguilo Jenny McGee Andrew Weiss DATE TIME AND PLACE March 27 2000 11 13 ­ 11 29 a m EST Oval Office The President HelloVladimir can you hear me on your victory on Sunday U President­elect Putin Thank you Congratulations U The President I think thisis a really historic milestone for Russia and it's very important thatthe peoplehave put their trust in you You have a big responsibility now The hardest partforyou will be taking those expectations and turning them intoconcrete results thatimprovepeople's lives I'msure you can do it 021 I'mvery interested in building our relationship and the relationship between the U S and Russia I hope we can findan opportunity to meet soon I hope we can use thisyear to full advantage We can accomplisha lottogether if we can agree on priority areas of our relationship and I am confident thatwe can do thatas well j27 President­elect Putin First of all I would like to thank you Bill forthis phone call I alsowant to say thatthe statement thatyou made about my modest personality was not unacknowledged here and it is clearto the whole worldthatI am a person you can work with This statement by the U S President was not unnoticed by people in Russia and throughout the world pf CONFIBBM Afe Classified by RobertA Bradtke Reason 1 5 d Declassify on 3 28 10 eeNF'IDENTIAL I think we have a good basisforU S ­Russian relations which was established by you and the first Russian President Mr Yeltsin and we have all the grounds to developrelations on this basis But of course the most difficult taskwill be to justify the expectations of the population within the country I expectthatwe'll manage to achievea lotin our cooperation together and this will help us a lotin our country too Our staffs are preparing different optionsforour soonest possible meeting and I think thiskindof meetingcan take place even beforeOkinawa You would be a most welcome guest here and we can coordinate our contacts at any time foryou Thank you forthis phone call verymuch pOj The President You'rewelcome First let me say thatI'll have our peopleget in touch and I hope we can meet beforeOkinawa That would be good I'd like to mentiona few otherpointsif you have a moment President­elect Putin Yes I am listening U The President Let me say first of all I had a good talk with Jim Wolfensohnabout hismeetingwithyou and he cares verymuch about the success of Russia I know you have an ambitious market reformagenda but I wanted to make clearthatI am convincedthe international communitywants you to succeed and wants Russia to succeed I think thattherewill be a realreward if you achieve these objectives The second thingI wanted to say is thatI read your recent letter on Chechnya I think Chechnya is still an obstacle to your economic and globalagenda I hope you will launchcredible investigations intothe alleged abuses by the military and move intoa civil and political phase in your dealings withChechnya I think nothing would help Russiamore or help you more than accountability on these human rights issuesand progresson an OSCE permanentpresence COf Finally on the arms issues I hope we can keep Sandy Bergerand Sergey Ivanovmaking progresson the Iranissue I'mhopefulwe can move ahead on a common arms control agenda and hope we can concludeby thissummer agreementson further reductions in START III adaptingthe ABM treaty as wellas the otherissues on our agenda I think thisisvery very important and I hope of course you will be able to ratify START II President­elect Putin As forthe Berger­Ivanov channel I give it the same positive evaluation This relates to both the Iran issueand the ABM Treaty I think thatthereare grounds for continuing consultations here and we have a common basisfora ­CONFIDENTIAL ­eONFI­DENTI­AL­ common approachhere As forthe START IItreaty we'restarting active negotiations withthe Duma now This isbeingdone both throughchannelsof the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of ForeignAffairs and I have reasonsto believe we'll have positive movement in thatdirection pf As forChechnya I have appointed a representative to deal with the issueof human rights and he'snow in the middleof negotiations withthe Councilof Europe and the OSCE on having these organizations join hiswork in Chechnya Allcrimes committedby everyonehave to be investigated there The crimes related to hostages including foreigners still are not investigated I spoke to Tony Blair this morning I didn't have enough time to tell him that in accordancewithour data one of the field commanders was killed and it was this personwho orderedthe beheadingof the English hostages Now about Wolfensohn we had very good contacts withhim He broughtan excellent team withhim I have to say thatthe peoplewho met withthem on our side spoke the same language and it was very impressive We have all the grounds to believe that this program is goingto be a joint one and to a greatextent focusedon the field you mentioned which is structural reform As faras I know he had hisdaughter's wedding yesterday I sent him my best regards but if you see him in person couldyou relay my best regardsto him U The President I will do that Let's have our peoplework together I want to meet as soon as we can and I'd like to see Russia in the springtime once more PjT President­elect Putin Bill I do remember our meetingsin Oslo and New Zealand and I recall thosewithgreatwarmth I hope to see you againin the spring The President Thank you have a wonderful day You've earned it U President­elect Putin Thank you so much Bill U The President Good­bye U End of Conversation ­eeNFIDENTIAL This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu Read related article Putin Clinton and Presidential Transitions 2020-11-02