Natural Gas Lithuania

A member of the Communist Party Politburo confirmed Friday that the blockade of natural gas to Lithuania will be partially lifted starting today as a gesture of Kremlin goodwill. Moscow ordered the cutoff of all oil, most natural gas and some raw material shipments to Lithuania in April in an effort to persuade the republic to rescind its independence declaration of March 11.

The Kremlin has lifted its 10-week ban on rail deliveries of key foodstuffs to Lithuania, the last remaining economic sanction imposed to stop the republic's independence drive, Lithuanian officials said Wednesday. The shipments should resume within two or three days, depending on the availability of rail cars, said Gintaras Yatkonis of the Lithuanian Council of Ministers' information center.

The Kremlin has lifted its 10-week ban on rail deliveries of key foodstuffs to Lithuania, the last remaining economic sanction imposed to stop the republic's independence drive, Lithuanian officials said Wednesday. The shipments should resume within two or three days, depending on the availability of rail cars, said Gintaras Yatkonis of the Lithuanian Council of Ministers' information center.

A member of the Communist Party Politburo confirmed Friday that the blockade of natural gas to Lithuania will be partially lifted starting today as a gesture of Kremlin goodwill. Moscow ordered the cutoff of all oil, most natural gas and some raw material shipments to Lithuania in April in an effort to persuade the republic to rescind its independence declaration of March 11.

VILNIUS, Soviet Union--With hopes for substantial help from the West fading, Lithuanian leaders set their sights Wednesday on obtaining oil and gas from Soviet republics and cities willing to defy Moscow's embargo orders in exchange for milk and meat.

The Kremlin sharply curtailed supplies of natural gas to Lithuania today, hours after it halted the flow of crude oil to the republic for refusing to scrap laws promoting independence, Lithuanian officials said. Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis said Moscow's economic embargo is tantamount to it recognizing his Baltic republic's independence. A Soviet energy official, however, said the Lithuanians got what they deserved for defying President Mikhail S.

The Lithuanian government, retreating from its three-month-old declaration of independence, recommended on Saturday that the Baltic republic's Parliament suspend the declaration in order to begin negotiations with the central government on Lithuania's secession from the Soviet Union. The Lithuanian Cabinet proposed that the Supreme Council, the republic's Parliament, declare a "temporary moratorium" on the independence act to meet Soviet President Mikhail S.

Lithuanian leaders said the Kremlin made good Tuesday on its threat to throttle their economy by ordering drastic cutbacks in natural gas deliveries and a halt in oil supplies for the breakaway Baltic republic's sole refinery. Lithuania's leader, Vytautas Landsbergis, accused Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev of "brutal" action to break his homeland's drive for independence from Moscow, but he said the energy cuts would not have that effect.

VILNIUS, Soviet Union--With hopes for substantial help from the West fading, Lithuanian leaders set their sights Wednesday on obtaining oil and gas from Soviet republics and cities willing to defy Moscow's embargo orders in exchange for milk and meat.

The Kremlin sharply curtailed supplies of natural gas to Lithuania today, hours after it halted the flow of crude oil to the republic for refusing to scrap laws promoting independence, Lithuanian officials said. Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis said Moscow's economic embargo is tantamount to it recognizing his Baltic republic's independence. A Soviet energy official, however, said the Lithuanians got what they deserved for defying President Mikhail S.