Word: lithuania
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...According to the Soviet news agency TASS, additional Soviet troops were sent across the Lithuanian border to "ensure the rights" of ethnic Russians and Poles, who make up almost 20% of the republic's residents. Some 30,000 troops were already stationed in Lithuania...
...Friday all foreign diplomats, including two Americans, were told to leave Lithuania within twelve hours...
...weeks ago, when Gorbachev gave the Landsbergis government three days to respond to a declaration from the Congress of People's Deputies stating that the republic's secession on March 11 had been illegal. Landsbergis replied that the Congress's resolution was "without legal foundation" and a violation of Lithuania's internal affairs...
Throughout the propaganda barrage -- abetted by anti-Lithuanian coverage in the Moscow media -- Landsbergis and his colleagues never wavered from their insistence that as the governors of a sovereign nation, they need not take orders from Moscow. "Psychological warfare is being waged against Lithuania," said Landsbergis in a speech to the local parliament. "I have no doubt that we will bear this pressure. It is a question of who has sovereignty over this land. Does it belong to the people of Lithuania or to some other state?" As for the decree ordering the surrender of firearms, Landsbergis replied...
Even as the situation deteriorated, officials in both Lithuania and the West were convinced Gorbachev would not dare intervene militarily. "Things are calm here," said Kazimira Prunskiene, the tough economist whom Landsbergis had named as his Prime Minister. "An invasion would provoke a tremendous crisis. It would be the end of perestroika, and I don't think Gorbachev is prepared for that...