Title: Milestones: 1993–2000 - Office of the Historian
Headings: Bill Clinton, Boris Yeltsin, and U.S.-Russian Relations
Milestones: 1993–2000
Bill Clinton, Boris Yeltsin, and U.S.-Russian Relations

Content: and Yeltsin objected to U.S. military intervention in Bosnia, including NATO  airstrikes in September. The Dayton Agreement, which ended the Bosnian War in  December, and the Khasavyurt Accord, which ended the First Chechen War in August  1996, did not resolve growing tensions between the two countries. At its meeting  in Madrid, July 1997, NATO formally invited three former Soviet  satellites—Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic—to join the alliance; and in  March 1999, less than two weeks after their membership became effective, NATO  began to bomb Serbia, Russia’s ally, in an effort to end its military operations  in Kosovo. Yeltsin denounced but could not deflect either development. Likewise,  Clinton could do little but protest five months later as Russia began a massive  bombing campaign in the Second Chechen War. When Yeltsin suddenly resigned from  office in December, however, Clinton praised his counterpart for helping to  achieve “genuine progress” in U.S.-Russian relations. “ Of course, we have also  had our differences,” Clinton observed, “but the starting point for our  relationship has always been how Russia and America can work together to advance  our common interests.”