PRIMAKOV CONSULTS WITH U.S. VICE PRESIDENT IN KUALA LUMPUR.

Even as the Kremlin was making its pitch to Germany’s chancellor for Western financial assistance, Russian officials half a world away were making the same pitch yesterday to U.S. Vice President Al Gore. In a meeting held on the margins of the Asia-Pacific economic cooperation forum (APEC) in Kuala Lumpur, Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov reportedly discussed with Gore a broad range of issues, including the Russian government’s economic anticrisis program. Primakov said that Gore had found the program to be “reasonable and… realistic.” But U.S. officials reportedly refused to comment on the Russian program, suggesting that Washington, like Bonn, is in no hurry to endorse Primakov’s plan. Yevgeny Nazdratenko, governor of Russia’s Far Eastern region and a member of the Russian delegation in Malaysia, said that Gore had also complained of the way in Russia had frittered away previous Western credits (Reuters, November 17). On November 14 Russia celebrated its admission as a full member into APEC.

RUSSIAN DEFENSE CHIEF VISITS EGYPT AND SYRIA.