My Life by Bill Clinton, p. 676

“At the press conference after our meeting, I said that we had made progress on Bosnia and that we would both push for the ratification of START II and work together to conclude a comprehensive nuclear test-ban treaty in 1996. It was a good announcement, but Yeltsin stole the show. He told the press that he was leaving our meeting with more optimism than he had brought to it, because of all the press reports saying that our summit “was going to be a disaster. Well, now, for the first time, I can tell you that you’re a disaster.” I almost fell over laughing, and the press laughed too. All I could say to them in response was “Be sure you get the right attribution there.” Yeltsin could get away with saying the darndest things.

Yeltsin always practiced diplomacy as performance art, and when he was drunk, the performance was burlesque. This was the worst incident so far. Clinton, however, doubled over in laughter, slapped Boris on the back and had to wipe tears from his eyes. When he came to the microphone, he said, “Just make sure you get the attribution right!”, then continued to laugh - a little too hard to be convincing.

Yeltsin really drank a lot of wine at the lunch, and was clearly reeling around. At the meeting afterwards he did make some useful policy concessions, which we dutifully recorded while his officials looked rather glum. But then they went out to meet with the press. I can’t remember what exactly he was saying, but Yeltsin went on and on, in a rather funny way, abusing the reporters.