The president as entree
Not since former Teamsters boss Jackie Presser was carried into a union convention wearing a toga has there been an entrance quite as comical as Clinton’s arrival in Helsinki. Or make that entree: The wheelchair-confined president was lowered from Air Force One and onto a Finnair catering truck–the best method for getting him to the tarmac, since stairs were obviously out of the question. Yeltsin, by contrast, bounded vigorously down his plane’s steps. The White House had hoped that Clinton would return to his plane on a less garish lift, but, in the end, the same catering truck was used. What really irked the president’s staff, though, was the seating arrangement for the presidents’ press conference. Yeltsin sat inches taller than Clinton because, at the last moment, a platform had been inserted under the Russian president’s chair. Clinton aides never located the culprit.
The fat Finn?
Clinton looked drawn during his long day of Friday meetings with Yeltsin. Maybe a lousy night’s sleep was to blame? The president told Yeltsin that between midnight and 2 a.m. he was kept awake by loud thumping on the hotel ceiling above him. ““Boris, I thought you had hired an extra-large Finn to stomp on my roof.’’ Yeltsin laughed. Press Secretary Mike McCurry blamed clanking pipes from the hotel’s sauna, then later retracted his statement, apologizing to the presidential party’s Finnish hotelier. The likely suspect? Street protesters demanding Latvian entry into NATO.
Spin City
Gone are the days when the Soviet press operation consisted of nyet men in gray suits. The Russian spinmeisters were Helsinki’s hippest. Not only affable and available, they were prompt; U.S. briefings sometimes started hours late. The Russians also were often more straightforward; one even admitted the country’s unemployment was much higher than published figures.
Madame secretary
How was Madeleine Albright’s summit? Clinton and Yeltsin demanded that their aides come up with a deal on missile defense. They succeeded–but only, NEWSWEEK has learned, after Albright played hardball by walking out of her meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov. What made her success even sweeter was that her ex-husband, Joe Albright, a reporter who walked out on her 15 years ago, covered the summit and witnessed her victory. Talk about the summit as therapy.
