Word: vilnius
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Lithuania quickly shifted toward flexibility. Seizing on an idea floated last month by French President Francois Mitterrand and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Vilnius offered, in return for negotiations, to suspend all legislation it had passed since declaring independence. Prime Minister Prunskiene flew to Moscow to present the offer to Gorbachev. While she was still in the air, Gorbachev called the Lithuanian mission asking to see her as soon as she arrived. This was a gesture of compromise on his part, since he had insisted no talks were possible until the Lithuanians canceled their declaration of independence...
...Awarded keys to the city to two visitors from the Soviet Union Rimantas Matulis, a recently elected city councillor from Vilnius, Lithuania, is visiting Cambridge to learn about the workings of local democratic government. Gregorii B. Maistrenko, a high school teacher from Leningrad, is visiting the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School along with one other Russian teacher and 10 students as part of an education exchange program...
Lithuanians had been hoping for foreign intervention in their secession standoff with Moscow, but what they got last week was not what they had in mind. Winding up a summit in Paris, French President Francois Mitterrand and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl urged Vilnius to resolve its crisis with Moscow "through the classic channels of dialogue." To get talks going, they suggested in a letter to Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis, "it would be helpful if the effects of the decisions taken by your Parliament were suspended...
With these signs that the West would not take sides with Lithuania, an antiblockade commission was set up in Vilnius to seek ways around the two- week-old oil-and-gas embargo ordered by Gorbachev. It was also exploring possible food-for-oil swaps. But with the Kremlin in control of the railroads, such schemes were unlikely to break Moscow's squeeze...
...stumbling block remains: what to do about the March 11 declaration of independence. Lithuanians are interpreting the proposed suspension to refer only to legislation passed after March 11, while Moscow reads it to include suspension of the declaration itself. The no-retreat camp still has the upper hand in Vilnius, but the artful Western nudge might help move both sides closer to talks...