RFE/RL DAILY REPORT No. 159 22 August, 1991 COUP AFTERMATH - SITUATION IN THE CENTER AND RSFSR GORBACHEV RETURNS TO MOSCOW. USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev arrived back in Moscow early in the morning of August 22, Western agencies reported today. He was accompanied by his wife, Raisa Gorbacheva, who is said to be suffering from a nervous disorder that has paralyzed her left hand, and by a young girl who left the plane wrapped in blanket. Speaking to reporters at the airport, Gorbachev said nothing came of attempts morally to "break" him and his family while they were in detention in the Crimea. He said he would shortly be holding a press conference at which he would reveal details of his detention. Reporters said Gorbachev looked tired but that he spoke vigorously. No further details are available at this time [12:00 CEST] concerning Gorbachev's immediate plans. (Elizabeth Teague) MOST MEMBERS OF COUP ARRESTED; PUGO COMMITS SUICIDE. Most members of the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR are under arrest and are being interrogated. One of them, Minister of Internal Affairs Boriss Pugo, committed suicide and his wife was hospitalized after an attempt. Defense Minister Dmitrii Yazov was arrested, as was USSR Vice-President and self-proclaimed "acting President" Gennadii Yanaev after his office in the Kremlin was searched. KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov and military-industrial complex representative Aleksandr Tizyakov were arrested after returning from the Crimea. Their place of detention is being kept secret. Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov is still in hospital, not in prison. Kolkhoz leader Vasilii Starodubtsev is out of Moscow. He and Defense Council Chairman Oleg Baklanov cannot be arrested at present because, as USSR People's Deputies, they have parliamentary immunity. The USSR Supreme Soviet would have to vote to rescind their immunity. This information was given to the RSFSR Supreme Soviet by RSFSR General RSFSR Prosecutor, Valentin Stepankov. (RSFSR Television, August 22). (Vera Tolz, Julia Wishnevsky, Victor Yasmann, and Sallie Wise) MEETING IN MOSCOW TO CELEBRATE VICTORY. A mass meeting started at 12:00 noon Moscow time in front of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet building. Russian Television said that the meeting was called by the RSFSR leadership to celebrate victory over the coup. A TV moderator said that it was the population of the country that won. The meeting will also commemorate those killed in the past three days. In his opening address to the meeting, RSFSR Presdent Boris Yeltsin charged that USSR Supreme Soviet Chairman Anatolii Luk'yanov was the main organizer of the coup. Yeltsin also said that a Russian National Guard should promptly be created and that Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi has been put in charge of implementing this plan. Speaking at the meeting, Aleksandr Yakovlev called for dismissals of hundreds of Army generals. He also proposed to put a stop to KGB activities aimed against the people. Then Yeltsin proposed renaming the square in front of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet building Square of Freedom of Russia. He said he will sign a decree on the issue within an hour. The Soviet flag above the Russian White House has been replaced by the Russian Tricolor. (Vera Tolz) YELTSIN TELLS CROWD THE CPSU MUST BE STRIPPED OF POWER. Throughout the morning, Russian Television has been screening live coverage, first of the session of the RSFSR parliament, now of a huge mass meeting taking place outside the parliament building. The crowd cheered ecstatically as Yeltsin addressed them and stated that the first steps of the Russian government in the aftermath of the coup will be radical "deparitification" to place the CPSU on an equal footing with other political parties and to put the army and police under democratic, parliamentary control. (Elizabeth Teague) YELTSIN DECLARED "HERO OF THE USSR." The crowd cheered enthusiastically as the mayor of Moscow, Gavriil Popov, awarded Yeltsin the USSR's highest civilian order and declared him a "Hero of the Soviet Union." But, Popov told the crowd, "the real heroes of the hour are you." Then, a minute's silence was observed in honor of those who lost their lives during the coup. RSFSR Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi told the crowd that August 21, 1991, was a "Day of Victory over Fascism" as important as Victory Day at the close of World War 2. (Elizabeth Teague) ECONOMIC REFORMS TO ACCELERATE. Following the addresses of Yeltsin and RSFSR Prime Minister Ivan Silaev, Chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet Ruslan Khasbulatov told the crowd around the RSFSR Parliament building that economic reforms would accelerate and deepen in the wake of the failed coup. Standing behind the main speakers was Stanislav Shatalin, one of the main architects of the "500-Days" program which Gorbachev rejected last fall in favor of a more moderate reform plan. Shatalin looked in very good spirits and in apparently good health as well. The push for more radical reform by the RSFSR leadership could spell a comeback for Shatalin and his economic program. (John Tedstrom) GORBACHEV WILL RESHUFFLE GOVERNMENT. Silaev spoke with Gorbachev about his plans for the USSR government late August 21. Silaev told Gorbachev that Russia intends to give him strong support in order to accelerate economic changes "on the condition that the authors of the reforms not be the same," according to Western reports. Silaev said that Gorbachev agreed. Silaev told crowds at the RSFSR parliament building that the KGB would no longer "be a state within a state." (John Tedstrom) RUSSIAN SUPREME SOVIET DISCUSSED DISMANTLING KGB. The emergency session of the RSFSR SupSov put forward the issue of disbanding the USSR KGB and revising the law on state security organs, adopted last May. The Chairman of the session Ruslan Khasbulatov supported the proposal and suggested that the concrete draft will be prepared by the Russian KGB. The same fate apparently awaits the USSR Procuracy, which during the coup sent regional prosecutors an order to obey the GKChP. (Victor Yasmann) LENINGRAD JOURNALIST TALKED TO GORBACHEV. One of the first people who managed to telephone Gorbachev when communication with the Soviet President was restored was a Leningrad journalist from the Komsomol newspaper Smena, Georgii Urushadze. He gave details of his conversation on August 21 to RFE/RL. Gorbachev reportedly told the journalist that he was arrested at his dacha on August 19 together with his daughter and two granddaughters. They were in hysterics, but he [Gorbachev] was calm and managed to calm down the others. Gorbachev also told the journalist that many of his personal bodyguards remained loyal to him and were also held in detention at the dacha. (Vera Tolz) YELTSIN REMOVES KRAVCHENKO AS BROADCAST CHIEF. Yeltsin issued a decree August 21 placing the Soviet Central Radio and TV system under the control of the Russian government. The decree removed Leonid Kravchenko as head of central radio and television. TASS said the decree will stand until Gorbachev makes a subsequent ruling. The RSFSR TV newscast Vesti said that the RSFSR Prosecutor's Office should investigate Kravchenko's activities. Vesti also said that even before it became clear that the coup had fizzled out, 150 employees of Central TV sent a letter to Kravchenko and the USSR Union of Journalists, saying that their work under emergency rule was impossible. RSFSR TV reported that Soviet journalists filmed an 8-hour tape on the events of the past three days. Kravchenko, however, banned the showing of it. RSFSR TV showed yesterday some clips from this tape and promised more. (Vera Tolz) YELTSIN DISMISSES REGIONAL OFFICIALS. Acting on the recommendation of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet, Yeltsin issued a decree on August 21 dismissing four regional soviet executive committee chairmen for "supporting the unconstitutional activities of the so-called State Committee for the State of Emergency and for non-fulfillment of the decrees of the RSFSR President," Central Television reported yesterday. The four are Gorov (Krasnoyarsk krai), Borodaev (Rostov oblast'), Porkhov (Samara oblast'), and Toporkov (Lipetsk oblast'). KOBETS A RISING STAR; CALLS FOR EXECUTIONS. One military man whose career stands to profit greatly from the preceding days events is RSFSR Defense Minister, Colonel General Konstantin Kobets. At a meeting of the RSFSR parliament marking the failure of the coup held this morning (August 22), Kobets was wildly applauded by the gathered delegates. Minutes later a deputy recommended that Kobets be considered for the position of USSR Defense Minister (Army General Dmitrii Yazov, one of the conspirators, has been identified in official statements as "former Defense Minister"). The 52-year-old general is a communications specialist who served as a Deputy Chief of the USSR General Staff prior to joining the Yeltsin government. On August 21, according to Western agencies, he said that the leaders of the coup attempt should be shot, and that he had agreed to assume the position of RSFSR Defense Minister only after receiving permission to execute the conspirators. "I will be perfectly calm when I personally command the firing squad that shoots those junta bastards," he reportedly said. (Stephen Foye) MOISEEV'S ROLE? Earlier speculation that Mikhail Moiseev was a part of the coup effort has been discounted by Pentagon officials, CNN reported on the evening of August 21. Moiseev is Chief of the General Staff and has played a high profile role in recent arms control negotiations. While he had a long history of criticizing the reform process, he nevertheless appeared to hold more moderate positions than the increasingly militant Defense Minister, Dmitrii Yazov. (Stephen Foye) LIMITED MILITARY SUPPORT FOR THE COUP. One of the most obvious and important observations characterizing coup post-mortems in the West and the Soviet Union is the very limited support that the coup leadership apparently enjoyed among military units. This phenomenon appears to reflect the many splits that were obvious in the armed forces well before the coup attempt. In addition to well-publicized defections from several elite divisions in Moscow, the fact that the Leningrad Military District Commander cut an early deal with reformist Leningrad mayor Anatolii Sobchak not to deploy troops against the population was a particularly serious loss for the conspirators. US officials and Western analysts, moreover, were reportedly surprised by the small number of military units that were actually sent into action nationwide. According to CNN of August 21, Pentagon officials characterized military operations in the Baltic as pathetic. (Stephen Foye) YAKOVLEV CONDEMNS THE CPSU. "It is immoral to be a member of such a Party," Aleksandr Yakovlev told Vesti August 21, referring to what he branded "cowardly" behavior by the CPSU leadership during the coup. The Party, Yakovlev argued, has boasted that it was best champion of the people's interests. But the coup was staged, the USSR President and CPSU General Secretary was illegally overthrown, and, worst of all, human blood was shed, yet the Party uttered no protest. (Along with other leaders of the Movement for Democratic Reforms, Eduard Shevardnadze and Eduard Sagalaev, Yakovlev was seen on the barricades near the Russian White House the night of August 20-21.) (Julia Wishnevsky) AND RSFSR CP POLITBURO MEMBER AGREES WITH YAKOVLEV. Yakovlev's view was echoed the same evening in an interview with RFE/RL by Aleksei Bryachikhin, a member of the RSFSR CP Politburo and a Moscow prefect appointed by radical Mayor Gavriil Popov. Bryachikhin pointed out that the leaderships of the CPSU, the RSFSR Communist Party, and the Moscow Party Committee have all kept silent and thus in fact approved of the coup against the Party's General Secretary. If he learns that the Party leadership orchestrated the coup, Bryachikhin added, he will quit the RCP Politburo. (Julia Wishnevsky) YAKOVLEV SAID HE EXPECTED PLOT. Yakovlev said in an interview with Austrian TV on August 21 that he had warned Gorbachev of the danger of a coup d'etat since the 28th Party Congress. Yakovlev maintained that he even gave Gorbachev the names of potential plotters, and indicated that among those names were those of some of the members of the Emergency Committee. Yakovlev said that Gorbachev did not take the warning seriously and told Yakovlev that these persons "lack the courage to stage a coup." (Alexander Rahr) WHO WAS BEHIND THE COUP? Former USSR foreign ministry adviser Vyacheslav Dashichev revealed on German TV (ZDF's "Heute Journal") on August 21 that the first deputy chairman of the Defense Council, Oleg Baklanov, was the initiator of the coup. Dashichev said his information is absolutely reliable because it came from Yeltsin's entourage. Dashichev asserted that KGB boss Kryuchkov and defense minister Yazov were only half-heartedly involved in the coup, and Baklanov dismissed them from the Emergency Committee after their failure to seize the RSFSR parliament building. Dashichev also asserted that Baklanov's main supporters had been Moscow Party boss Yurii Prokof'ev and Politburo member Oleg Shenin. (Alexander Rahr) SPECULATION THAT GORBACHEV ORCHESTRATED COUP HIMSELF. Interviewed August 21 by CNN, Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia said he thought that Gorbachev himself had planned the coup in order to strengthen his political position before the Soviet presidential elections. US President George Bush rejected this hypothesis as "ridiculous." World chess champion Gary Kasparov similarly suggested that Gorbachev "was involved" in the coup, although it was difficult to say to what extent, as it was "his only chance" to boost his popularity. Former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze categorized Gorbachev's decision to leave Moscow on vacation as "a gross error" and expressed the hope that he was "the victim and not the perpetrator" of the putsch. (Liz Fuller) BESSMERTNYKH BACK AT WORK. The whereabouts of Foreign Minister Aleksandr Bessmertnykh during the coup were something of a mystery. He had been reported "ill" (see Daily Report, August 21), and Western diplomats were unable to reach him by telephone. However, an interim charge d'affaires in the Soviet embassy in Tokyo, Yurii Kuznetsov, told Western reporters in Tokyo yesterday that Bessmertnykh had been on vacation. Meanwhile, Bessmertnykh surfaced yesterday afternoon at a press conference in Moscow, at which he declared that Gorbachev's ouster was unconstitutional. (Sallie Wise) AMBARTSUMOV: NO UNION TREATY WITH MUTALIBOV, NIYAZOV, MAKHKAMOV. At today's session of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet broadcast live on Moscow TV, Evgenii Ambartsumov urged not to rush the signing of the Union treaty as long as people like Ayaz Mutalibov, president of Azerbaijan, Kakhar Makhkamov, president of Tajikistan, and Sapurmurad Niyazov, president of Turkmenistan, remained in office. Some RSFSR deputies had earlier called for Azerbaijan not to be allowed to sign the treaty because of its treatment of Armenians. Ambartsumov cited Niyazov's suppression of the popular front in Turkmenistan, and Makhkamov's role in the February 1990 events in Dushanbe. (Ann Sheehy) YELTSIN WANTS NO UNDUE DELAY IN SIGNING UNION TREATY. In his address to the meeting outside the RSFSR parliament today carried live by Moscow TV, Yeltsin said that there should be no undue delay in signing the Union treaty, but that after the events of the past three days there should be some corrections to the text. In particular, he repeated that the Russian republic would now need its own national guard. (Ann Sheehy) PLEA FOR LIFTING OF SANCTIONS. At a press conference in Moscow on August 21, USSR First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Shcherbakov appealed to foreign governments not to go ahead with sanctions against the Soviet Union, Western agencies reported that day. Shcherbakov cited a Soviet government statement that asked all states and international economic organizations not to suspend economic cooperation at this "difficult period." He said that sanctions would only make life more difficult for the Soviet people who are faced with acute shortages of food and fuel. The post-coup standing of Shcherbakov and, indeed, that of all of his colleagues in the government, is not clear at this time. (Keith Bush) WESTERN BANKS WITHHELD PAYMENTS. An unidentified German banker told Western agencies August 21 that major Western banks, reacting to the attempted coup in the USSR, had delayed payments into accounts held in the West by the Soviet foreign trade bank Vneshekonombank. This would appear to confirm complaints aired in statements by Vneshekonombank on August 20 and 21. (Keith Bush). PATRIARCH ANATHEMATIZES PARTICIPANTS OF COUP. RSFSR TV's Vesti reported on August 21 that Patriarch Aleksii II the same day anathematized all those who participated in the failed coup. (Anathema is a formal curse excommunicating a person from a church.) (Oxana Antic) SITUATION IN THE BALTIC STATES LATVIA REAFFIRMS INDEPENDENCE. The Latvian Supreme Council affirmed Latvia's independence on August 21 shortly after noon, reported Radio Riga that day. The legislators, voting 111 to 13 with not abstentions, adopted what was called a "Constitutional Law" that modified the May 4, l990 declaration stating that Latvia was working toward restoring de facto independence. The new law ends the transition period toward independence that started on May 4, 1990 and declares that "Latvia is an independent democratic republic in which the sovereign power of the Latvian state belongs to the people of Latvia, and whose internal legal status is defined by the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia of 15 February 1922." (Dzintra Bungs) SOVIET TROOPS IN LATVIA TO START RETURNING TO BASES. According to Diena of August 21, Latvian Supreme Council Deputy Chairman Dainis Ivans had talked earlier day with Colonel General Fedor Kuzmin, Commander of the USSR Baltic District, about Soviet troop presence in Latvia. Kuzmin told Ivans that the pullback of troops from the sites in Latvia that they had occupied since August 19 would start today, August 22. It appears most of the Soviet troops used in implementing the orders of the USSR State of Emergency Committee were already based in Latvia. It would therefore be highly unlikely that there would be mass departure of Soviet soldiers from Latvia at this time. (Dzintra Bungs) OMON ORDERED TO STAY IN BASES. Around 7:30PM on August 21 Latvia's Acting Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Peteris Jakimovs telephoned the USSR Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Boris Gromov, reported Diena that evening. Gromov said that he had ordered all OMON units in Latvia and Lithuania to return to their bases and stay there. According to Jakimovs, Gromov appeared to be unsure whether the OMON units would follow the orders consistently. On August 21 OMON units had gathered near the parliament building while the Supreme Council was in session; they fired shots and threw tear gas canisters at demonstrators there; apparently only one person was injured. (Dzintra Bungs) RADIO RIGA RESUMES BROADCASTING. Twenty-six Soviet paratroopers started to leave the Latvian Riga Building on August 21 around 8:40 PM local time, reported Diena that evening. The building had been occupied the building since the early hours of August 20. Radio Riga resumed regular broadcasts at 9:30PM local time, transmitting first Latvia's national anthem and then the Lord's Prayer. During the occupation of the building local radio stations kept the population informed, broadcasting news and official announcements from the Latvian government and Supreme Council. Latgale TV, based in Rezekne, transmitted programs from noon to midnight while the Riga TV building was occupied. Regular telephone and telegraph communications resumed around 6.30 PM on August 21.(Dzintra Bungs) POLITICAL STRIKE ENDED IN LATVIA. Andris Zorgins, speaking on Radio Riga on August 21 and 22, thanked all those who had participated in the political strike and asked them to go back to work, since the immediate goals of the strike had been achieved. He added that the Strike Coordinating Council would continue its work to until all the demands of the strikers are met. These demands include the pullback of all troops from the sites that they occupy, remuneration for all damage done by those acting on behalf of the USSR State of Emergency Committee, the start of legal proceedings against those guilty of criminal acts. Zorgins is deputy chairman of the Strike Coordinating Council. (Dzintra Bungs) TROOPS LEAVE TALLINN TV TOWER, TAPA STATION. As news of the coup failure reached the Baltic States, troops occupying the Tallinn TV tower withdrew, freeing five civilians trapped on the 22nd floor, Estonian Radio reported on August 21. Just hours earlier, additional troops had been brought in to reinforce those paratroopers who had stormed the TV tower early on August 21. Troops also vacated the railway station at Tapa yesterday evening. Paratroopers belonging to the same Pskov division as the men at the TV tower had occupied the key railway station earlier on August 21. Tapa is the major junction for Soviet military trains in the area. (Riina Kionka) RUSSIA RECOGNIZES ESTONIAN INDEPENDENCE. The RSFSR was the first republic to recognize Estonia's state independence on August 21, the Estonian Foreign Ministry reported that day. RSFSR representative to the Estonia Oleg Popovich made the announcement on behalf of the RSFSR Foreign Ministry, saying that appropriate documents will be exchanged in the future when the political situation has stabilized. Lithuanian Prime Minister Vagnorius sent a congratulatory message to Estonia's Prime Minister Savisaar last night, and the Lithuanian Supreme Council is expected to take similar action in the next few days. On August 20, Estonia declared that its transition period to independence--declared last year on March 30--had ended. (Riina Kionka) SOVIETS WITHDRAW FROM SOME SEIZED BUILDINGS. On August 21 when it became clear that the coup had failed, Soviet troops left the Vilnius communications center, the Kaunas radio and television center, and other buildings that they had recently seized. The Vilnius TV and radio facilities and other buildings seized in January, however, remain occupied, but broadcasts of programs from the television tower have been halted, Radio Independent Lithuania reported August 22. Lithuanian Supreme Council chairman Vytautas Landsbergis spoke today with Vilnius MVD commander Colonel Nikolai Mironenko and USSR General Staff Chief Mikhail Moiseev about the return of the seized buildings. Moiseev said that he would bring up the matter with Gorbachev. (Saulius Girnius) LITHUANIAN KILLED NEAR PARLIAMENT. Later that evening a jeep with 4 Soviet soldiers drove up to a checkpoint near the Lithuanian parliament building and threw explosives, Radio Independent Lithuania reported August 22. In the ensuing exchange of gunfire a Lithuanian security guard was killed, and two National Defense department members were injured as was one of the Soviet soldiers who was based in Snieckus (the other 3 escaped). The identities of the Lithuanian victims have not been announced, but the matter is still being investigated. (Saulius Girnius) GOVERNMENT DECREE AGAINST OMON. Radio Independent Lithuania reported on August 22 that the Lithuanian government had issued a decree ordering the Lithuanian Ministry of Internal Affairs to temporarily take control over the OMON troops based in Lithuania. The OMON were ordered to obey the decree and its members were forbidden to leave their bases. The decree that went into effect at 11:00 p.m. on August 21 stated that Vilnius OMON commander Boleslav Makutinowicz would be held personally accountable for its implementation. The decree also suggested that the leaders of the Soviet armed forces in Vilnius should take back the military equipment and weapons recently received from the USSR. (Saulius Girnius) VAGNORIUS CONGRATULATES ESTONIA AND LATVIA. Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Vagnorius sent telegrams to his counterparts in Estonia and Latvia, Edgar Savissar and Ivars Godmanis, congratulating their republics' decisions to proclaim independence, Radio Independent Lithuania reported August 22. In the name of the Lithuanian government and people, Vagnorius welcomed the decisions and expressed the hope that all the sanctions that had been imposed by the USSR on the Baltic republics would be lifted. (Saulius Girnius) LANDSBERGIS COMMENTS. In an interview with the RFE/RL Lithuanian Service on August 21, Landsbergis welcomed the failure of the coup, hoping that "the situation will be much more suited to peaceful and democratic decisions." The danger for Lithuania remains, however, according to Landsbergis, who warned of further Soviet military action. He expressed concern over "military forces in the Baltic States and the Baltic Sea that are in the hands of people who think in the old way." While new power and government relationships are being forged in Moscow, the situation "may be insufficiently defined," Landsbergis said. The Soviet forces "may take self-willed actions." (Gytis Liulevicius) LITHUANIAN REPRESENTATIVE IN STOCKHOLM. Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Valdemaras Katkus weathered the coup in Sweden, and attended the opening of a Lithuanian representation in Stockholm on August 20, the RFE Lithuanian Service reported August 21. Katkus described the representation as a "Lithuanian Information Bureau," but regarded the presence of many ambassadors and Swedish government officials at the opening as a de facto recognition of the representation as a part of the diploma ic corps in Stockholm. (Gytis Liulevicius) LITHUANIA BANS SELECT MASS MEDIA. The Lithuanian Ministry of Internal Affairs "temporarily halted the publ cation and distribution" of 18 newspapers on Lithuanian terr tory, Radio Independent Lithuania reported August 22. The ban invokes Article 3 of the new Lithuania-RSFSR treaty, under which both countries reserve the right to prohibit actions "seeking to destroy [...] independence by force." The list includes all the newspapers permitted to publish during the short-lived coup, the most prominent being Pravda, Izvestia, Krasnaya zvezda, Sovetskaya Rossiya, with the addition of local Lithuanian papers loyal to the old order: Litva sovetskaya and its Lithuanian-language counterpart Tarybu Lietuva, and the official newspaper of the anti-independence organization "Edinstvo," published in Lithuanian, Polish, and Russian. (Gytis Liulevicius) SITUATION IN THE REPUBLICS KRAVCHUK TALKS TO GORBACHEV. Radio Kiev on August 21 carried an interview with Leonid Kravchuk, chairman of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet, after he spoke by telephone with Gorbachev. Kravchuk told correspondents that he informed Gorbachev that he had phoned Luk'yanov earlier in the day with an ultimatum demanding that Gorbachev be present at the forthcoming session of the USSR Supreme Soviet. Kravchuk also said that he had intended, within a day or two, to ask the United Nations to immediately convene a session of its Security Council to discuss the situation in the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian leader revealed that in the Crimea Gorbachev was able to learn about developments from Ukrainian television and radio. (Roman Solchanyk) UKRAINIAN COMMUNISTS ISSUE STATEMENT. The Secretariat of the Communist Party of Ukraine issued a statement yesterday, which was carried by Radio Kiev on August 21. The statement refers to "the dangerous development of events" in the country that threatens "the independence and territorial integrity of the Soviet state." Such phraseology, it will be recalled, was also used in the first documents of the GKChP. "In this situation," the statement continues, "the leadership of the country has opted for taking extraordinary measures." The statement, although it does not explicitly support the GKChP, does not denounce it either. (Roman Solchanyk) PROTESTS IN UKRAINE. Radio Kiev on August 21 reported on demonstrations held in several Ukrainian cities that day organized by democratic forces in protest against the coup. In Ternopil', in Western Ukraine, the meeting appealed to the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet to convene an extraordinary session that would declare Ukraine secession from the USSR. The same demand was voiced at a demonstration in Chernihiv. (Roman Solchanyk) TASS DEFENDS MUTALIBOV. TASS August 21 carried a statement by the Azerbaijani news agency AzerINFORM denying a report that Azerbaijani President Mutalibov had welcomed Gorbachev's ouster. AzerINFORM attributed the claim to Radio France International and denied that Mutalibov had given RFI an interview. In fact the original report was carried by Reuters August 19 and was based on an IRNA dispatch. (Liz Fuller) NAZARBAEV TALKS TO GORBACHEV. According to the first edition of Russian TV's Vesti news show after the station resumed independent broadcasting on August 21, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev succeeded in reaching Gorbachev by telephone--apparently among the first leaders to do so--and had asked that the Soviet president not talk to putsch leaders who had flown to the Crimea and who were, according to Gorbachev, trying to see him. Nazarbaev reportedly said that he had told Gorbachev to wait for the arrival of the delegation from the RSFSR Supreme Soviet. TASS, however, suggests that it was Gorbachev who phoned Nazarbaev. (Bess Brown) AKAEV ATTACKS REPUBLICAN COMMUNISTS. Kirgiz President Askar Akaev has already begun to use the failed right-wing coup in Moscow to discredit the conservative Communist Party apparat in Kyrgyzstan. In an appeal to the people of the republic, issued yesterday afternoon and reported on Radio Moscow, Akaev said that all progressive forces in Kyrgyzstan, but not the leadership of the CP, had condemned the "military-Party putsch." Akaev also proclaimed his support for Yeltsin and Nazarbaev. TASS reported that on August 21 Akaev issued a decree banning organizations of political parties from all government offices. (Bess Brown) KARIMOV REJECTS PUTSCH. Uzbek President Islam Karimov, inclined at first to sympathize with the coup in Moscow, issued a decree on August 21 declaring that all decisions of organizations and enterprises in Uzbekistan must be in accord with the laws of the republic and of the USSR, and declaring invalid the orders of the "state-of-emergency committee" which violate those laws. (Bess Brown) NIYAZOV SAYS COUP DECREES INVALID. Turkmenistan's President Saparmurad Niyazov issued a decree August 21 saying that the decisions of the "putschists" are not valid in Turkmenistan, RFE/RL's Turkmen service was told by telephone from Ashkhabad today. This is the first decree Niyazov issued on the Soviet coup. Turkmenistan's Popular Front Agzybirlik's leaders previously had condemned the Emergency Committee, calling its decisions null and void. (Zarif Nazar) MOLDAVIAN PARLIAMENT DEMANDS COUP ASSESSMENT. At an extraordinary sitting August 21, the Moldavian parliament voted a resolution terming the coup d'etat of recent days "an attempt to put into practice the program of the 'Soyuz' group of deputies and of similar anti-democratic groups." It called on the USSR Supreme Soviet and on republican parliaments to support the following demands of Moldavia: immediate dissolution of the Emergency Committee and an investigation into the circumstances of the coup; dismissal of Luk'yanov in connection with his apparent role in the coup; immediate reinstatement of Gorbachev as USSR President (this had been demanded by the Moldavian leadership from the first day of the coup); and a meeting of leaders of all republics before the end of August in Kishinev to discuss the lessons of the coup and ways to overcome its consequences. (Vladimir Socor) MOLDAVIAN APPEAL TO ARMED FORCES. In addition, the Moldavian parliament appealed to soldiers and officers of the USSR armed forces to refuse participation in any anti-constitutional actions, to follow in all circumstances the laws of the republics in which they are stationed, and to strictly observe the human rights of citizens. The Moldavian parliament also honored the civilians who were killed and wounded in recent days in Moscow and in the Baltic States. The parliament restated "Moldavia's firm resolve to continue striving for full sovereignty and independence." (Vladimir Socor) USSR - OTHER NEWS ARMENIA CALLS FOR MEETING OF REPUBLICAN LEADERS. Interfax reported August 21 that the presidium of the Armenian Parliament has called for a meeting of top republican leaders to discuss destabilization by hardline Communists and ethnic conflicts and "to search together for ways out of the current situation." (Liz Fuller)