Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990 TAG: 9003133312
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
Parliamentarians from other independence-minded republics took the floor of the Congress of People's Deputies to assail the proposed presidency as far too strong for the loose federation of sovereign countries they envision as the future Soviet Union.
"The fact that the U.S.S.R. is a union of sovereign states is hardly taken into account," said Givi Gumbaridze, Communist Party chief of the southern republic of Georgia, where the parliament voted Friday to reject the presidency proposal and to demand immediate negotiations with Moscow on independence.
"This draft does not give enough consideration to the sad traditions of our state," he said, referring to decades of dictatorship and its terrible toll of mass murder.
Lithuanians were so dismayed by Gorbachev's proposed strengthening of the presidency that they rushed to declare independence before it passed.
"Tomorrow, Mr. Gorbachev will get dictatorial powers with the right to overrun any republican parliament," said Algimantas Chekuolis, a Lithuanian who with his republic's declaration of independence now describes himself as a former member of the Soviet Congress, attending as an observer.
As Gorbachev opened the session, he called the Lithuanian action "alarming" without ever mentioning the word independence. He suggested that the government study what is happening and prepare a reaction.
Another member of the ruling Communist Party Politburo, Yegor K. Ligachev, said Moscow would not use force in Lithuania.
Progressive Moscow deputy Alexei Yablokov said legislators from Georgia, Moldavia, Azerbaijan, Estonia and Latvia are expected to boycott today's vote on the constitutional amendment, which could fail for lack of the required two-thirds majority. All five of those republics are possible candidates for following the Lithuanians into secession.
At one point, Estonian President Arnold Ruutel, Gorbachev and Gorbachev's aide Georgi Shakhnazarov pulled up chairs behind the dais and Ruutel earnestly pitched a deal to the Soviet leader. Ruutel told reporters Estonia was seeking assurances that Gorbachev would negotiate the Baltic state's future relationship with Moscow, but he refused to say if the Estonians would trade that promise for their votes on the presidency.
I U ION PHO O: oviet President Mikhail Gorbachev(left) confers with Vice President Anatoly Lukyanov during an afternoon session of the Soviet Congress Monday in Moscow AP
by CNB