Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 23, 1990 TAG: 9004230066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: VILNIUS, SOVIET UNION LENGTH: Medium
Officials also said that they were eliminating some local bus and streetcar routes to conserve gasoline, and the republic's president appealed to his countrymen to demonstrate their fortitude as the Kremlin seeks to isolate them economically.
At the same time, the government sent a high-level delegation to Moscow to seek a political solution with Soviet leaders. However the delegation, headed by Lithuanian Vice President Bronius Kuzmickas, did not have an appointment with any Soviet official when it left Vilnius on Sunday night.
"The pressure is growing for all the people of Lithuania," President Vytautas Landsbergis said on Lithuanian Television. "Sometimes you cannot believe that big Russia can do such things to little Lithuania. Lithuania hasn't committed any crime against the Soviet Union."
Nevertheless, he urged the Lithuanian people to persevere. "You must try to stand the economic blockade as long as you can. Time will show that our people can survive," he said.
In response to Moscow's decision to dry up gasoline pipes running into the republic, Lithuanian leaders said they were eliminating all gasoline supplies that go to Soviet military bases in the republic. It was expected, however, that those bases would continue to receive gasoline from Moscow.
In another step likely to anger Moscow, officials blocked the export by sea to other countries of goods produced by Lithuanian factories which are run by the Soviet Union. The Lithuanian leaders argued that they did not want any of the foreign currency earned from those products to go to the Soviet government.
And in a telegram sent to Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Lithuanian government said that it was forced by the blockade of some raw materials to stop exporting to the Soviet Union a number of items produced in the republic, including electric motors, television receivers and textiles.
Late Wednesday, the Soviet Union began imposing economic sanctions against the republic. Moscow confirmed it had cut off all oil supplies and about 84 percent of natural gas supplies. Lithuanian leaders further charge that other goods are being blocked, ranging from wood and metals to fish and sugar.
That was denied Sunday by Andrei Girenko, a secretary in the Communist Party Central Committee. Girenko, in Vilnius to attend a meeting of the pro-Moscow faction of the Lithuanian Communist Party, told a news conference that although Moscow cut oil and gas supplies to Lithuania, other goods are still flowing to the republic.
"Plans for a total economic blockade do not exist," Girenko said. "The measures which are being undertaken in accordance with the decisions of the president [Mikhail Gorbachev] can in no way be considered as a blockade of Lithuania. They cover only a small part of the production that was supplied and continues to be supplied to Lithuania."
by CNB