Word: vilnius
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...Moscow correspondent James Carney for months as the Soviet government has frequently denied responsibility for the brutality of the paramilitary unit's actions against the Lithuanian independence movement. Last month the Soviet Interior Ministry granted Carney permission to interview Major Boleslav Makutinovich, who commands the Black Beret unit in Vilnius. But when Carney arrived earlier this month at the group's heavily fortified base, he found himself at the business end of an automatic rifle wielded by a sentry who told him to come back the next day. He did. In the World section this week, you will find...
...perestroika has proved to be an epic with many chapters. Based in Moscow for the past year, Carney has covered the backlash against the Soviet President's liberalization. Last January he was with Lithuanian demonstrators at the television tower in Vilnius when Soviet army paratroopers opened fire nearby, killing 15 civilians. Says Carney: "For the first time, it seemed clear that Gorbachev wasn't entirely in control." That sense was reinforced during Carney's visit to the Black Beret base. Says Carney: "To a man, the Black Berets spoke of defending the Soviet system to the end, regardless of Moscow...
...into the 21st century as a modern, civilized country. All those missiles in their silos, all those troops in foreign lands, all those rubles and cheap oil flowing to Cuba, represented resources that he desperately needed for the Augean task of cleaning up the mess that stretches from Vilnius to Vladivostok...
...members of the nationalist Rukh (Movement) to founders of the new Party of Democratic Renaissance, from Ukrainian chauvinists to representatives of the ethnic Russians, who make up 20% of the population, the people I've met in Kiev seem every bit as determined as those in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius to break with Moscow. If they succeed, their country would be one of the largest in Europe. However, their rhetoric is quieter and their strategy less confrontational than the Balts...
That force erupted on two bloody Sundays in January, when Black Beret special forces and other Soviet units killed at least 18 people in Vilnius and Riga. Last Friday, Black Berets burned a Lithuanian customs post on the Latvian border and severely beat an unarmed guard. The entrances to official buildings throughout the Baltics are barricaded with concrete slabs, some decorated with patriotic murals. Now Moscow is threatening to impose economic sanctions on any republic that secedes, and the general staff of the armed forces is insisting that the Baltic governments pay "financial compensation" for any of their citizens...