Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 13, 1990 TAG: 9006130574
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
"We have no doubts the economic blockade will be lifted," Lithuanian Prime Minister Kazimiera Prunskiene said after a meeting in the Kremlin with Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Soviet news agency reported.
Prunskiene said she had already reached an agreement with Ryzhkov on a partial increase of the supply of natural gas and raw materials to some enterprises in the republic, Tass said.
She also said the Soviet government intends to review the question of renewing the supply of fuel for Lithuanian agriculture.
The move came a day after Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev proposed transforming the Soviet Union into a looser federation of sovereign states in an attempt to avert the disintegration of the Soviet empire.
The Soviet leader has also significantly softened his position on German reunification, saying a united Germany could be an "associate member" of the NATO alliance while at the same time joining a new pan-European security order.
He did not define exactly what "associate membership" would entail, but the Kremlin up to now has opposed a new Germany whose sole military allegiance is to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
In an effort to mollify angry Soviet consumers, the government also announced today it was putting off unpopular bread price increases that were set to take effect in two weeks. But lawmakers are considering a plan to speed up other elements of the radical plan to move to a market economy.
Gorbachev made his proposal about the Soviet republics on Tuesday, the same day the parliament of the huge Russian republic approved a resolution declaring its laws to carry more weight than federal statutes.
Gorbachev proposed that the country's republics agree on a new, looser union of "sovereign states," officials said after the meeting.
The 59-year-old Soviet leader has pledged repeatedly since last fall to work out a new union treaty. Some reformers would like to transform the Soviet Union into a confederation of independent countries, like the European Community or the British Commonwealth.
Tuesday's proposal for a union of "sovereign states" is the closest that Gorbachev has come to publicly considering such a radical change.
The Russian resolution has no immediate legal effect.
But if it takes hold, it could bring a dramatic reduction in Gorbachev's authority because Russia includes 52 percent of the Soviet Union's population and three-quarters of its land mass.
The Russian Congress of People's Deputies, under the leadership of radical reformer Boris Yeltsin, voted 907-13 for the declaration. The statement was weaker than originally proposed because it says Russia's sovereignty - and the priority of its laws over national ones - will be worked out in a new Russian constitution and union treaty.
Any new treaty that keeps the Soviet Union as a single country would be likely to shift substantial powers from the federal government to the republics. Gorbachev has promised repeatedly that a new federation structure would solve the republics' grievances, but independence activists have dismissed his assurances in the past for lack of a concrete proposal.
Some reformers have suggested that the central government retain control over foreign policy and defense. Others have added control of some industries, overall economic planning and other duties to the list.
In an address to the Supreme Soviet legislature, broadcast live on Soviet TV, Gorbachev said "huge results" were achieved in arms control at his Washington summit with President Bush.
He reported on his talks with Bush on a united Germany joining NATO. West Germany now belongs to the Western military alliance and East Germany to Warsaw Pact, an instrument of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe until last year's string of revolutions.
Gorbachev said, "Our position is thus: We could agree to the joining, if you accept associative participation, the principle of blocs coming together in conjunction with the unification of Germany in the process of which mutual obligations are not changed, neither from the side of West or East Germany, and if simultaneously the blocs are reformed in natural connection with Vienna and the all-European process."
He did not spell out what associate membership for Germany would entail. Vienna is the venue for arms reduction talks and the Europe-wide Conference on Security and Cooperation aimed at reducing tensions.
The Soviet president seemed to be demanding that a united Germany fulfill East Germany's obligations to the Warsaw Pact only during a transition period.
In Washington, Bush said "a unified Germany should be in NATO with no conditions," but that he was prepared to listen and discuss "without rancor" any ideas the Soviets have on the issue.
by CNB