Word: baltic
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...debate in its wider dimensions was not so clear-cut. Other key issues gripping the West and Japan included Soviet compliance with arms reductions, the security of Eastern Europe's newborn democracies, and the plight of the Baltic republics. Overarching those quandaries was the question of who in the U.S.S.R. was now the worthier negotiating partner: a diminished Gorbachev or leaders of the newly muscular, more reform-driven republics -- especially the Russian president and hero of the hour, Boris Yeltsin...
With technical advice and encouragement from the West, the republics may yet harness their new spirit of nationalism and develop a true market system. In that event, Bush's judgment on the prospects for Baltic independence may turn out to have a broader application. Asked if the Kremlin had seen the light on the Baltics, the President replied, "Well, I think some of the people who saw the darkness are no longer around...
...slogan of demokratizatsiya, he created conditions around the country for popular local leaders, frequently outspoken nationalists, to defeat Moscow's minions. As a result of glasnost, the Kremlin faced up to some of the uglier truths of Soviet history, including the illegality of Stalin's annexation of the three Baltic republics...
...force in January. Now the building looks like a command post in a war zone, and those who inhabit it view themselves as besieged defenders of the Soviet empire. In its unofficial role as armed protector of the republic's non-Lithuanian minorities, many of whom fear Baltic independence, the OMON unit has become a kind of partisan brigade determined to prevent Lithuania's secession at all costs. "We are drawn together by our attitude to the future of Lithuania and the Soviet Union," says Major Boleslav Makutinovich, commander of the unit. "When others talk to us of independence...
...eight Lithuanians manning a customs post on the border with Belorussia were shot in the head. Seven died; the eighth is still fighting for his life in a hospital. The Lithuanian government immediately blamed the Black Berets, who have been accused of attacking and burning down more than 20 Baltic customs posts this year. In a law passed last March, the Soviet parliament banned the establishment of independent border posts, making them convenient targets in OMON's campaign to enforce Soviet...