By mid-1993, tensions over control of the Black Sea Fleet (ChF) escalated sharply due to Ukrainian attempts to assert authority over the fleet, provoking protests and defections to Russian command, particularly in Sevastopol and Crimea. The crisis stems from the stalled implementation of the 1992 Yalta Agreement, which outlined shared Russian-Ukrainian oversight, while competing national interests and rising nationalist pressures have blocked a clear resolution. With local unrest growing and no firm diplomatic progress, the situation risks further destabilization without an urgent legal and political settlement at the highest levels.

Deputy Secretary Talbott met with Media Most Vice Chairman Igor Malashenko December 8. Malashenko reviewed the domestic political situation. He said Yeltsin would remain in office until 2000 at all costs, and suggested that Luzhkov had the best shot at succeeding him. He was positive on Yavlinskiy's strength, and saw him as a possible kingmaker and prime minister in 2000. He viewed the changes in the Presidential Administration darkly, particularly given the military counterintelligence backgrounds of key figures there and in Primakov's entourage. He said that the fate of FSB Director Putin, a Chubays protege, would be a litmus test of intentions on safeguarding civil liberties. Malashenko admitted Media Most and NTV had been severely weakened by the crisis. To buy time for the 18-24 months he estimated it would take the economy to recover, Gusinskiy was negotiating to sell a further 25 percent of the company to Gazprom.

Kohl emphasizes the need for a peaceful liberation of Eastern Croatia. Kohl urgently asks Tudjman to look into Croatian war crimes and human rights violations himself. Kohl wants Tudjman "to enforce discipline in the cases where the allegations were justified and penalize the people that had committed crimes."

A U.S. summary of a meeting between Bill Clinton and Helmut Kohl.

Kohl and Clinton review the state of NATO enlargement after the January 1994 NATO Summit in Brussels. They view NATO's Partnership for Peace (PfP) as the best solution to engage Russia and to reach out to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Both view the situation in Ukraine as a key factor in the search for Europe's post-Cold War order. "If anything happened in Ukraine, this would increase the pressure for the NATO accession of the Central and Eastern European countries," Clinton says.

Kohl and Clinton review the recently concluded trilateral agreement on Ukraine's denuclearization and Clinton's contacts with Yeltsin and Ukraine's President Kravchuk.

Kohl and Mubarak discuss the recent bomb attack in Cairo and the question of the assassins. Upon Kohl's question, Mubarak rejects the idea that Libya and Gaddafi could be behind it. Rather, Mubarak suggests the changes in Gaddafi’s position and the latter's concern about fundamentalist terror in Libya. Mubarak thinks Iran was behind the terror attack in Cairo.

During their first meeting, Kohl and Clinton examine the relevance of their joint support for Yeltsin and the need for more international financial aid for Russia agains the backdrop of the forthcoming Clinton-Yeltsin meeting in Vancouver in early April. Moreover, Kohl and Clinton discuss the relevance of intensified U.S.-German ties in the fields of culture, education and trade after the end of the Cold War.

Mitterrand gives a report on his recent meeting with Yeltsin emphasizing his support for the idea to have a multilateral Western summit meeting on financial aid for Russia prior to the 1993 Tokyo World Economic Summit as a way to show more support for Yeltsin. Kohl and Mitterrand discuss British and Japanese objections to this idea.

Bohl and Zlenko analyze the situation in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Union's formal dissolution. They disuss the fate of the remaining nuclear weapons and armaments in Ukraine and the prospects for their dismantlement. They also review plans for the withdrawal of "Soviet" soldiers from Germany and their return to Ukraine.