Lithuania Armed Forces Ussr

Fearful that the Kremlin is regressing to the Stalinist excesses that enslaved them for decades, East European governments on Monday denounced the Soviet crackdown in Lithuania that killed more than a dozen unarmed civilians. "We cannot accept the military action in Lithuania. We condemn and deplore it," Hungarian Prime Minister Jozsef Antall told a special session of Parliament convened to discuss the Soviet crisis.

One afternoon last month, the Red Army cordially invited the international media to observe what was being billed as a historic occasion: the first withdrawal of former Soviet troops from this newly independent Baltic nation after 50 years of occupation. The gates of the army compound just outside Vilnius were flung open, and seven massive trucks bearing surface-to-air missiles revved their engines.

One afternoon last month, the Red Army cordially invited the international media to observe what was being billed as a historic occasion: the first withdrawal of former Soviet troops from this newly independent Baltic nation after 50 years of occupation. The gates of the army compound just outside Vilnius were flung open, and seven massive trucks bearing surface-to-air missiles revved their engines.

About 80 soldiers of the former Soviet army are scheduled to cross the border from Lithuania into Russia today in what the Lithuanian government is happily advertising as the beginning of full Soviet withdrawal from the now-independent Baltic state. Negotiations on the pace of the withdrawal are still continuing, however, with Lithuania demanding that the troops leave as quickly as possible and Russia objecting that it will take time to house and relocate them.

In its toughest and most explicit policy statement on the violent Soviet crackdown in the three Baltic states, the Bush Administration said Thursday that it is considering curtailing "the whole range of programs of cooperation with the Soviet Union" if Moscow's repression intensifies. Similarly, at a meeting in Paris, the European Community threatened Thursday to cut off all Soviet aid, including emergency food supplies, if Moscow keeps repressing the Baltic republics.

Soviet authorities, attempting to calm the country's political tensions, announced the withdrawal on Wednesday of most of the additional troops deployed in the Baltic republics and pledged that new military patrols in urban areas will be used only to fight crime.

The allied assault on Iraq could end now if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein makes an "unequivocal commitment" to withdraw from Kuwait, the United States and Soviet Union declared Tuesday, softening the previous U.S. insistence that only an actual withdrawal would stop the war. The statement also pledged joint U.S.

On the eve of a visit here by the new Soviet foreign minister, President Bush Friday tempered his past criticism of the Soviet crackdown in the Baltic republics, but said that it remains to be determined whether he will visit Mocow next month as scheduled. With Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh and Secretary of State James A. Baker III meeting today and Bush planning to meet with Bessmertnykh at the White House Monday, three issues have cast doubt on the planned Feb.

Angered by the bloody Soviet crackdown in Lithuania, the Senate is preparing to adopt this week a bipartisan resolution urging President Bush to postpone his scheduled mid-February summit meeting with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, congressional sources said Tuesday.

The Bush Administration on Wednesday deplored Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's moves to restrict press freedom, and the Senate asked President Bush to consider cutting off all economic aid to the Soviet Union in the wake of the bloody military crackdown in Lithuania.

Violence again erupted Saturday in Soviet Georgia when forces loyal to the republic's president clashed with opposition protesters throughout the morning on the main street of the capital, and one person was shot dead and more than 80 wounded.

The Soviet Union may have finally acknowledged the independence of the Baltic states, but to political leaders here and in Latvia and Lithuania this chiefly means they now can begin in earnest the negotiations over the withdrawal of the Soviet military presence that has dominated their lands for 50 years. "We understand this is going to be a process, not a one-time act, and it will take some time," Andris Gutmanis, the Latvian deputy minister of economics, said Friday.

Without any fanfare or press coverage, two deputy ministers of the Soviet Atomic Energy Ministry came to the Lithuanian capital this week to turn over a huge nuclear power station to the Baltic republic. "Until this week, officials from the Soviet energy ministries talked to me like their underling," Lithuanian Energy Minister Leonas Asmantas said. "But when they came this time, we talked like officials of two friendly countries. It is amazing how quickly their attitude changed."

In a tangible sign that the Kremlin accepts that Lithuania is on the road to independence, officials from Moscow and the Baltic republic on Wednesday signed an agreement making a Lithuanian-issued visa the only requirement for entry into the republic. The agreement, signed for the central government by a deputy chairman of the Soviet KGB, Gen.

Commanders of the Soviet Union's elite internal security troops who briefly took over communications in the Lithuanian capital last week were summoned to Moscow and "seriously warned" that they must stop their wildcat tactics, according to reports Saturday.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev believes a commando raid in Lithuania could have been an attempt to poison the atmosphere before his meeting with Western industrial leaders in London next month, his spokesman said Thursday. Troops of an elite force responsible to conservative Interior Minister Boris K. Pugo took over the central telephone exchange in Vilnius on Wednesday, cutting communications from the breakaway republic for several hours. Presidential spokesman Vitaly I.

Lithuania and Latvia accused Soviet soldiers of attacking border posts Thursday, beating customs guards and torching the stations in an "economic war" against the two independence-minded Baltic republics. The two Baltic governments said Soviet paratroops based in Latvia crossed into Lithuania at dawn and attacked at least four posts set up along the republics' common border to control exports. Latvian President Anatolijs Gorbunovs sent Soviet President Mikhail S.

In a display of collective grief that was also a massive show of support for Lithuania's leadership, half a million people came into the streets of this Baltic capital Wednesday to help bury their compatriots killed by the Soviet army.

Soviet commandos seized Lithuania's key communications center Wednesday, shutting down its independent radio and television stations and cutting telephone and telegraph links to the republic for several hours. The Soviet Interior Ministry said later in Moscow that the operation, carried out by its elite special forces, was aimed at seizing weapons and explosives in the central telecommunications center in Vilnius, the republic's capital, and lasted about two hours.

Lithuania and Latvia accused Soviet soldiers of attacking border posts Thursday, beating customs guards and torching the stations in an "economic war" against the two independence-minded Baltic republics. The two Baltic governments said Soviet paratroops based in Latvia crossed into Lithuania at dawn and attacked at least four posts set up along the republics' common border to control exports. Latvian President Anatolijs Gorbunovs sent Soviet President Mikhail S.