The delegates went back to their conference. Russian President Boris Yeltsin went back to battling the hard-liners. The United States went back to cutting its defense budget. History will determine whether Mr. Kozyrev was an alarmist, a prophet, or a bit of both. It won't wash to claim that everybody knew all along what he was up to.
All reports depict the delegates as shaken and stunned.
Ukraine and Estonia rose to speak in protest. According to Izvestia, representatives of several former Soviet republics used the time between Mr. Kozyrev's two appearances to start drafting an appeal to NATO for protection. The Washington Post found diplomats talking about a renewed arms buildup. Foreign ministers of leading nations apparently thought it credible that Mr. Kozyrev was expressing Russian policy. In less than an hour, until he revealed otherwise, the logic of military preparedness had already begun to shift.