From: thietaniemi@cc.helsinki.fi
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet
Subject: RUSSIA hopelessly split on BALTIC question
Date: 7 Nov 92 16:30:22 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

Please, take a look at these different kind of signals that the
official Russia sends to the world on the Baltic states occupation
and withdrawal question (all excerpts from Radio Free Europe/
Radio Liberty):
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> YELTSIN'S MESSAGE TO HEADS OF BALTIC STATES.  At a Moscow press
> conference on 5 November Russian President Boris Yeltsin said that
> his decision to suspend troop withdrawals from the Baltic States
> had been made since the Defense Ministry had overstrained the
> process by stationing some units in open fields, Radio Lithuania
> reported. Yeltsin said that the schedule signed with Lithuania
> would be followed and that commissions had been formed to discuss
> such schedules for Latvia and Estonia which would not be linked
> with the rights of the Russian-speaking minorities there.  He
> denied that the suspension was the result of internal Russian
> political pressure. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)

> RUSSIA RULES ON BORDERS.  The Russian Supreme Soviet overrode
> government objections on 4 November and unilaterally declared the
> current administrative borders with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
> as the official state border. Interfax said deputies rejected the
> suggestion that the border should be the subject of a negotiated
> interstate treaty, a position the Baltic states hold as well.
> (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL, Inc.)
 
> SHAPOSHNIKOV ON BALTIC PULLOUT, WESTERN INVOLVEMENT.  CIS
> Commander-in-Chief Evgenii Shaposhnikov told reporters on 4
> November that the military withdrawal from the Baltic States
> should not be pushed because it could have explosive consequences
> for both Russia and the Baltic States. Shaposhnikov also
> criticized appeals by the Baltic governments to NATO and the CSCE
> on the issue, as well as the holding of referenda on it.  He
> claimed that the "Bacilli of nationalism" had not yet infected the
> army. (Stephen Foye, RFE/RL, Inc.)
 
> RUSSIAN COMMENTATOR HITS WEST ON BALTIC WITHDRAWAL.  Aleksandr
> Golts, a long-time political commentator for the Russian Defense
> Ministry newspaper Krasnaya zvezda, criticized Western governments
> on 4 November for reacting negatively to President Yeltsin's
> recent suspension of the troop withdrawal from the Baltic States.
> Golts wrote that a rapid movement to Russia of "a flood of
> Russians who have failed to obtain political, economic, and social
> rights in the Baltic area" would strengthen Yeltsin's extreme
> right-wing opposition.  He also charged that Western pressure had
> served to raise tensions in the Baltic region and thus precluded
> reasoned discussion of the withdrawal, and that the withdrawal
> itself was wreaking havoc on Russian defense reforms.  Golts also
> linked the withdrawal to the issue of safeguarding the rights of
> the Russian minority in the Baltic.  (Stephen Foye, RFE/RL)

> ASSURANCES ON RUSSIAN TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM BALTIC STATES.  On 4
> November US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told
> reporters that Acting US Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger
> had received assurances from the Russian ambassador to Washington
> Vladimir Lukin that Russian troops would be withdrawn from
> Lithuania according to the agreed timetable, an RFE/RL
> correspondent in Washington reported.  Boucher reiterated that the
> Russian troops should be withdrawn from Estonia and Latvia as soon
> as possible without any linkage with resettlement problems or the
> treatment of minorities.  (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL)

> CHURKIN TO BALTS: DISREGARD YELTSIN'S DECREE.  Russian Deputy
> Foreign Minister Vitaly Churkin has advised Estonia to disregard
> the order issued by President Boris Yeltsin last week to halt the
> withdrawal of troops from the Baltic states. Churkin, who
> concluded his two-day visit to Tallinn with a press conference,
> made three points: first, that Yeltsin's decree did not change in
> principle the process of troop withdrawals; second, that the
> decree was part of a working document meant only for internal use
> and not intended for wider dissemination; and third, that Russia
> would not link troop withdrawals to alleged "human rights abuses."
> When asked whether Russia had found evidence of such abuses,
> Churkin said he trusted the Estonian government's ability to
> guarantee human rights.  He declined to comment when asked why
> recent statements from the Foreign and Defense Ministries and the
> President's office appeared to contradict one another. The RFE/RL
> Estonian Service reported Churkin's remarks.  (Riina Kionka,
> RFE/RL, Inc.)
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Comment: According to my opinion, these mixed-up signals indicate 
that a hard power struggle is going on inside Russia and inside the
Russian armed forces.

thinks
the observer
Tapani Hietaniemi, Universitas Helsingiensis
                   urbs fennorum