To date, the West's efforts at building a social safety net in Russia have been embarrassing. When in Moscow, Clinton must deliver a private but firm message to Yeltsin and other Russian elites about the negative consequences of circumventing the democratic process. During the after dinner chat on the dacha porch one evening, Clinton should urge his counterpart to follow the example of George Washington and establish a precedent for the peaceful transfer of political power through an electoral process. As such a transfer would be a first in Russian history, no single event is more important for the consolidation of democracy than Russia's upcoming presidential election. Clinton should even consider holding a televised seminar with Russian nationalists, communists, and liberals on the virtues of democracy and the market.
Liberal ideas are on the wane in Russia today.
After Clinton leaves Moscow, the US must remain engaged in promoting democratic institutions in Russia. For years, Russian reformers and their Western backers wrongly believed that economic reform had to precede political reform. American assistance programs adopted this logic and devoted the lion's share of American aid to Russia into economic reform while only a fraction went to promoting democratic institutions. Empirically, however, the record of reform in the post-communist world has demonstrated that the fastest democratizers also have conducted the most successful economic reforms. Russia still lacks many of the basic institutions that constitute a liberal democracy.