Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday the viewpoints of Russian ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky are "reprehensible and anathema to all freedom-loving people." Gore said President Boris Yeltsin was optimistic he could put together a pro-reform government.
In remarkably blunt comments, Gore twice offered stinging criticism of Zhirinovsky, whose Liberal Democratic Party was the biggest vote-getter in Russia's parliamentary elections. And he beseeched Western allies to put more economic aid behind their support for Yeltsin's reforms."The views expressed by Zhirinovsky on issues such as the use of nuclear weapons, the expansion of borders, the treatment of ethnic minorities are reprehensible and anathema to all freedom-loving people in Russia, the United States and everywhere in the world," Gore said.
"If you want a laboratory test of those views, look at Bosnia," he said.
The vice president said that Yeltsin expressed optimism that he would be able to form a coalition government. And he said Yeltsin assured him strong showings by nationalists and communists would not slow reform.
Gore said Yeltsin's prediction was based on his expected success in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where a significant portion of the vote has yet to be counted. And Gore said Yeltsin promised to continue his economic reforms and resist any pressure from Zhirinovsky and others who believe Russia should retake former Soviet territory.
"He said the constitution will stand against any fascist or communist," Gore said. "He expressed great confidence in his ability to stay on the reform course."
Gore attributed Zhirinovsky's success to the pain of a Russian recession he said was far worse than the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s, and he pointedly called on other Western allies to deliver on their promised economic aid to Russia.
Some critics of the administration's Russian policy had said Yeltsin's poor showing in the parliamentary elections is proof that the policy is tied too closely to Yeltsin personally. But Gore dismissed such suggestions and said if anything, the United States and other Western allies needed to do more to help Yeltsin prove the wisdom of his economic reforms.
Gore said the elections "may serve as a kind of wake-up call to some people who weren't listening clearly to what President Clinton said. This is a historic transition under way here, that the world must recognize the breadth of the difficulty being carried by Russia's economy, the effect it has on the Russian people and the need to respond forcefully."
Zhirinovsky has said he considers Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and other countries to be Russian territory, and in interviews published this week threatened Germany and Japan that he would "not hesitate to deploy atomic weapons" if they meddled in Russian affairs.
The remarks sent a shudder across Europe and many of the former Soviet republics. But Gore said Yeltsin had assured him that Russia had no intention of expanding its borders.
Gore described Yeltsin as being in an upbeat mood but said top advisers to Yeltsin are "embarrassed" and realize that they did not work hard enough on the elections.
Zhirinovsky's autobiography, published in September, reveals a deeply resentful, lonely man. With uncommon candor, it says that politics became his substitute for friendship and love.
During his student years, Zhirinovsky recalls, he tried to go out with girls but was too timid to have normal relationships. Instead, his energy went into politics.
"Maybe, just as an artist or a composer needs some kind of unhappiness in order to create, in order to have inspiration, so it was with me. So that I could understand the political processes in society better and more deeply, I was cheated out of something in all other relationships," he wrote.
The title of the autobiography, "The Final March South," refers to Zhirinovsky's dream that Russia will grow strong again and expand across much of Europe and Asia.
"The final march south - Russian access to the shores of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea - that is the real task of saving the Russian nation," he wrote.