RFE/RL DAILY REPORT No. 165 August 30, 1991 ALL-UNION AND RSFSR TOPICS PRESIDENT'S POWERS CURTAILED. At its August 29 session, broadcast live on Central Television, the USSR Supreme Soviet voted 279-37, with 38 abstentions, to revoke the special powers invested in the USSR presidency by the USSR Congress of People's Deputies last year. The measure did not pass on the first vote, after several speakers argued that President Mikhail Gorbachev had rarely exercised these powers, but arguments that the State Committee for the State of Emergency had done so finally convinced a majority of members to vote for the measure. (Dawn Mann) USSR SECURITY COUNCIL PARTIALLY SET. The USSR Supreme Soviet on August 29 named leaders of nine republics to what is to be a new and strengthened Security Council headed by Gorbachev. The nine republics--including Russian, Ukraine Azerbaijan, Belorussia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizia, Turkmenistan, and Tajikstan--are those that took part in the "Nine plus One" talks. Vadim Bakatin and Evgenii Primakov, members of the previous Security Council, will remain on the Council. Gorbachev also proposed including Aleksandr Yakovlev, Gavriil Popov, Anatolii Sobchak, as well as Supreme Soviet Committee chairman Yurii Ryzhov and Presidential aid Grigorii Revenko. The Supreme Soviet ordered Gorbachev to submit these names to the leaders of the republics for approval. (Stephen Foye) CPSU SUSPENDED. The Supreme Soviet also adopted a resolution suspending the activities of the CPSU across the USSR, TASS reported August29. The vote was 283 in favor, 29 opposed, with 52 abstentions. The resolution cites evidence of CPSU involvement in the coup as grounds for the suspension; it also freezes the Party's financial assets and instructs the Ministry of Internal Affairs to make sure Party archives are not destroyed. The resolution also orders prosecutors to investigate the Party's actions during the putsch and to turn the evidence over to the USSR Supreme Court. A motion to ban the CPSU altogether was defeated. (Dawn Mann) NEW ELECTIONS TO SUPREME SOVIET. The SupSov decided yesterday that its entire membership should be renewed. The USSR Congress of People's Deputies, which will open in emergency session on September 2, will elect the new members of SupSov from the ranks of Congress deputies. (DawnMann) LUK'YANOV'S IMMUNITY LIFTED. On August 29, the USSR Supreme Soviet agreed to a request to lift the immunity of its chairman, Anatolii Luk'yanov. USSR General Prosecutor Nikolai Trubin told the legislators that Luk'yanov, while aware of the unconstitutional nature of the actions of former vicepresident Gennadii Yanaev, had attended a meeting of the junta the night before the coup was announced and had tried to justify its deeds "[holding] the Constitution in his hands." Luk'yanov had also promised the junta that the Supreme Soviet would approve of its actions, Trubin said. Trubin added that Luk'yanov faces the charge of "high treason" under Article 64 of the RSFSR Criminal Code. 360 deputies voted for lifting Luk'yanov's immunity, 2 voted against, and 28 abstained. (Julia Wishnevsky) GENERAL PROSECUTOR RESIGNS. After the vote on Luk'yanov, Trubin submitted his own resignation. Trubin said that although he had been abroad during the coup he was responsible for the cooperation of his first deputy with the junta, as well as for the failure of his other deputies to control the actions of the KGB and the military. The parliament accepted Trubin's resignation but asked him to continue working until the USSR Congress has chosen a successor. (Julia Wishnevsky) GOVERNMENT RESHUFFLE CONTINUES. At his August 28 press conference, Vol'skii announced the cancellation of Silaev's decision of August 26 to put RSFSR officials into top government positions. Instead, the Soviet ministries' first deputy chairmen would do the jobs of their disgraced bosses. Viktor Gerashchenko was reinstated as Chairman of the USSR Gosbank, having been replaced by Andrei Zverev for three days. And Igor' Lazarev had reportedly not turned up at the USSR Ministry of Finances to take over from Vladimir Orlov. Evgenii Yasin was appointed to the economic reform team: his brief was Soviet industry and entrepreneurship, The Financial Times reported August 29. (Keith Bush) NEW GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE. A Committee of Government Communication attached to the USSR Presidency has been created in order to maintain smooth flows of information among the Armed Forces and other state, economic and commercial bodies, TASS reported August 29. The Committee will absorb the KGB Communication Troops, and take over the functions of the KGB's Second and Sixteenth Administrations, a KGB service, an MVD administration, and the CPSU Central Committee General Department. The new Committee will have the status of a Union-republic committee. (VictorYasmann) MORE PERSONNEL CHANGES IN KGB. Air Force Lieutenant General Nikolai Stolyarov will replace Vitalii Ponamarev in the position of head of the USSR KGB Cadres Department, according to a USSR presidential decree published by TASS August29. KGB Chairman First Deputy Genii Ageev was also dismissed; his replacement is Anatolii Oleinikov. (Victor Yasmann) BAKATIN OUTLINES REFORM OF KGB. KGB military counter-intelligence organs, which monitor the Soviet Army and the MVD, will be transferred to the respective institutions, USSR KGB Chairman Vadim Bakatin told Russian Television on August29. Bakatin justified the need to preserve the Administration for the Protection of Constitutional Order (formerly the Fifth Main Administration), which investigates serious state crimes, on the grounds that having parallel organs in both the KGB and the MVD acts as a safeguard against an institutional monopoly. Bakatin supported suggestions that the KGB Main Archives be incorporated into a single network; however, he categorically rejected a proposal to publish the archives containing secret informers' reports. (Victor Yasmann) STATE COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE KGB. On August 28, Gorbachev issued a decree creating a state commission to investigate the KGB's involvement in the putsch and to evaluate proposals for the KGB's reorganization and the imposition of legislative control on the state security organs. USSR MVD Colonel Sergei Stepashin, 39, who is the Chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet Committee for Security, will chair the commission.The commission is part of the USSR presidential apparatus and must finish its work within the next two months. (Victor Yasmann) YELTSIN MEETS LEADERS OF RSFSR REPUBLICS. The Soviet media carried August 29 a statement drawn up by chairmen of the supreme soviets of ten of the 16 republics of the RSFSR after they met with Yeltsin on August 28. The republics stressed their support for the integrity of the RSFSR and the Union treaty, which they reaffirmed should be signed by them as part of the RSFSR delegation. Absent from the meeting were the leaders of Tatarstan, Checheno-Ingushetia, Buryatia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Tuva, and Karachai-Cherkessia. The leaders of the first four are under local pressure to resign because of their behavior during the abortive coup. Tatarstan still wants to sign the Union treaty independently. (Ann Sheehy) DEMANDS FOR RESIGNATION OF TATARSTAN PRESIDENT. Radio Rossii reported August 29 that more than 30,000 signatures had already been collected on the central square of Kazan' demanding the resignation of Tatarstan president Mintimer Shaimiev for his alleged support of the GKChP during the putsch. It had earlier been reported that large meetings were taking place in Kazan', one organized by the "Sovereignty" committee supporting the republican leadership and the independent signature of the Union treaty, and the other by democratic forces demanding the resignation of the whole Communist leadership. (Ann Sheehy) AUTHORS OF THE INFAMOUS APPEAL TO BE QUESTIONED. On August 29, RSFSR television asked USSR General Prosecutor about the infamous "Word to the People," an appeal written by 12 Russian conservatives and published in Sovetskaya Rossiya on July 23. Three of its signers--Vasilii Starodubtsev, Aleksandr Tizyakov, and former first deputy Defense Minister Valentin Varennikov--were arrested as coup leaders. Trubin said the remaining nine signatories are to be questioned by the prosecutors investigating the coup. (Julia Wishnevsky) ECONOMIC REFORM COMMITTEE MEETS. The four-man committee that was appointed by Gorbachev on August 24 held its first session on August 29, TASS reported that day. The division of responsibilities was announced by Interfax on August 28. It is: Yavlinsky--economic reform and integration into the world economy; Vol'sky--military-industrial complex, transportation, construction, and communications; Silaev--KGB, defense, interior ministries, and the media; and Luzhkov--day-to-day foreign economic relations, food supplies, trade, and agriculture. On August28, Arkadii Vol'sky said that all 15 republics had agreed to take part in the committee's work, The Financial Times reported August 29. (Keith Bush) VOL'SKY ON GRAIN PROCUREMENTS. Vol'sky told the press conference that only 25 million tons of grain had been procured to date out of a planned procurement total variously reported as 78, 80, and 85 million tons, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times reported August 29. Interfax of August 29 added that the Silaev committee had resolved to divert all consumer goods made in September to the countryside as incentives for farms to sell more produce to the state. (Keith Bush) SHEVARDNADZE ON SECURITY COUNCIL. According to an August 29 Interfax report, Eduard Shevardnadze was "surprised and puzzled" by Gorbachev's telephone call offering a position on the Security Council. Shevardnadze said the matter was too serious to discuss over the telephone and requested a meeting with Gorbachev to talk over the rights and duties of the SC and its members. Although the meeting did not take place, Gorbachev put Shevardnadze's name on a list of potential SC members. Shevardnadze then rejected the offer saying, "I should be asked what I think of my own future." He added that he might have accepted Gorbachev's invitation if a personal meeting with Gorbachev had convinced him to join the body. (Suzanne Crow) NO HASTY CONDEMNATIONS. In an August 29 Interfax interview, Shevardnadze called on people to have understanding for the actions of some USSR diplomats during the coup. He said that Gorbachev had not consulted him before appointing Boris Pankin and noted that he doubted that former Foreign Minister Aleksandr Bessmertnykh had acted in treason and hoped that in time more would become clear. (Suzanne Crow) PANKIN SPEAKS. Newly appointed Soviet Foreign Minister Boris Pankin said in an interview with Soviet TV on August 29 that his aim is for the USSR "to join the world of civilized states." Pankin also gave an interview to RFE/RL yesterday, in which he said that he will continue and intensify Gorbachev's foreign policy. In light of recent events, Pankin said, changes at the top echelons of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be unavoidable. He also said he sees no "special problems" in relations between the MFA and republic foreign ministries, and that the Union would set strategic priorities and coordinate all foreign political activities. Central coordination of foreign policy, however, will not be easy in view of the growing authority of the republics. (Sallie Wise) WHEN DID PANKIN COME OUT AGAINST THE COUP? Pankin's appointment as Foreign Minister seems to be based largely on his stance against the coup. His reaction was not immediate, however, and the timing of his statement raises the possibility that he hesitated before committing himself. Western agency accounts from August 21 of Pankin's call to the Czechoslovak news agency CTK differ, but CTK apparently did not report any contact with Pankin any earlier than late in the evening of August 20 or early morning of August 21.(Sallie Wise) A CLOUD ON PANKIN'S RECORD? Pankin's earlier career is not entirely without controversy. He was alleged to be involved with KGB disinformation efforts in the West during his tenure as head of the Soviet copyright agency [VAAP] from 1973 until 1982. (See The Wall Street Journal, June19, 1984 for details of the controversy). (Sallie Wise) ZAMYATIN RECALLED TO MOSCOW. Soviet ambassador to Great Britain Leonid Zamyatin was recalled to Moscow "for consultations" on August 28, The Independent reported August 29. Although Zamyatin described his recall as "usual diplomatic practice" in connection with Prime Minister Major's upcoming visit to the USSR September 1, it is more likely a result of Zamyatin's behavior during the coup. TASS on August 27, reporting on Zamyatin's denial of reports that he sympathized with the GKChP, cited a British journalist who had interviewed Zamyatin last week as saying that he had described the coup as "constitutional" and accused the journalist of being "a supporter of Mr. Yeltsin." (Sallie Wise) VORONIN AND G-7 ON AID. The Soviet ambassador to the European Community, Lev Voronin, appealed August 29 to the EC and the G-7 nations for increased food aid and more cash, RFE/RL's correspondent in London reported. After their London meeting on the same day, G-7 representatives restated the position adopted at the July 1991 summit meeting, namely, that large-scale cash aid to the USSR would be premature. Member nations were prepared, however, to alleviate shortages of food and medicine during the winter. They also stressed the importance of intensifying links with the republics.(Keith Bush) MAJOR ON AID TO THE USSR. After his meeting with US President George Bush, British Prime Minister John Major listed six ways in which the West will help the USSR, Western agencies reported August 29. 1) extend existing food credits, 2) assess the need for food aid this winter, 3) send "lifeline" teams to help establish food production and distribution systems, 4) implement existing technical aid programs, 5) get the IMF and World Bank "urgently involved" in aiding structural reform programs, and 6) push for associate membership for the USSR in the IMF, with a view to full membership in the future (Keith Bush) DPKR REGISTERED. The Democratic Party of Communists of Russia, whose temporary chairman is RSFSR Vice President Rutskoi, has been registered by the RSFSR Ministry of Justice, TASS reported August 30. Vladimir Lipitsky, a member of the party's organizing council, said the DPKR will not continue the cause of the CPSU and may change its name to the Free Party of Russia. Lipitsky also said that the DPKR does not plan to take over any Communist Party property. (Dawn Mann) PRAVDA REGISTERED IN RSFSR; WILL RESUME AUGUST 31. The RSFSR Ministry of the Press and Information has registered the former CPSU Central Committee daily, Pravda. Yeltsin had earlier transferred the paper to RSFSR jurisdiction. On August 29, TASS said that the newspaper was now being run by an organization made up of staff members. The report said the paper plans to resume publication on August 31. The report quoted new editor in chief Gennadii Seleznev as saying the paper will be independent of any political party, but won't change its name. (Seleznev used to be Pravda's deputy chief editor.) (Vera Tolz) SAGALAEV APPOINTED DEPUTY CHIEF OF CENTRAL TELEVISION. Chairman of the USSR Journalists' Union and former official at Central Soviet TV Eduard Sagalaev has been appointed first deputy chairman of the All-Union Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. On August 29, Central Television quoted him as saying in connection with his appointment that his first task would be to give more independence to the TV news service. (Vera Tolz) SHAPOSHNIKOV CONFIRMED. USSR SupSov deputies voted overwhelmingly on August 29 to confirm recently appointed Defense Minister Evgenii Shaposhnikov, TASS reported that same day. Addressing the assembly, Shaposhnikov urged quick passage of a series of defense-related laws, including legislation that would prevent the armed forces being used for anything but national defense. He also said that the nuclear testing grounds at Semi-palatinsk would be closed, but spoke against a full Soviet nuclear testing moratorium.(Stephen Foye) SHLYAGA FIRED? Quoting unofficial but "reliable" sources, Interfax on August 29 claimed that Colonel General Nikolai Shlyaga had been removed as Head of the Main Political Administration of the Soviet Army and Navy. The report was broadcast by Radio Rossii. Shlyaga, who was also a First Deputy Minister of Defense, is a long-time Party apparatchik who had worked to maintain Communist Party influence in the armed forces. He was appointed to head the political organs after the Twenty-eighth Party Congress last July. (Stephen Foye) GENERAL REFUSES TO TESTIFY. Colonel General Viktor Samsonov, the Commander of the Leningrad Military District, has refused to meet with a commission from the Leningrad City Council in order to discuss his actions during the recent coup, the Russian Information Agency said on August 29. The report was broadcast by Radio Rossii. Samsonov cut a deal early in the coup with Leningrad mayor Anatolii Sobchak, and refused to order troops into the city's center. The radio report nevertheless pointed out that on the first day of the "putsch" Samsonov appeared on Leningrad television and announced the imposition of a state of emergency in the city. (Stephen Foye) LIBERALS FLAYED AT AKHROMEEV FUNERAL. Grieving relatives and friends, gathered for the funeral of the late Marshal Sergei Akhromeev, blamed "liberal fascists" for his suicide, according to Reuters August 29. The report said that the funeral turned into a public trial as admirers, including high-ranking military officers, criticized "liberals" who have been appointed to head government ministries in the wake of the coup. Akhromeev, who has not yet been tied directly to the coup plotters, killed himself on the night of August 24. He was buried on August 29 without full military honors, reportedly next to the fresh grave of Communist Party official Nikolai Kruchina, who also committed suicide last week. (Stephen Foye) BALTIC STATES BALTIC RECOGNITION INCREASES WHILE GORBACHEV COMPLAINS. Western and Baltic media reported on August 29 and 30 that Panama, Cyprus, the Vatican, and Mongolia have formally recognized the Baltic States as independent states. Gorbachev again complained about this trend and told Italian Radio on August 29 that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had not respected the USSR Constitution in declaring independence. The USSR Congress of People's Deputies is expected to take up the issue of recognizing Baltic independence during its next session. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said on August 29 that if the USSR doesn't grant independence by September 2, the US will make its own move. (Dzintra Bungs) LATVIA TO RECOGNIZE ISRAEL, CROATIA, AND SLOVENIA. On August 29, the Latvian Supreme Council authorized the Latvian government to take the proper steps to extend diplomatic recognition to Israel, Slovenia, and Croatia, Radio Riga reported that day. Deputy Mavriks Vulfsons, a Jewish activist and Chairman of the Supreme Council Foreign Relations Committee, said that Latvia could notrecognize Israel in 1949 because Latvia was not then a free state. He expects Israel to recognize the Baltic States after the United States has done so. (Dzintra Bungs) GORBUNOVS REQUESTS USSR-LATVIAN TALKS. Latvian Supreme Council Chairman Anatolijs Gorbunovs sent a letter to Gorbachev on August 29. The Latvian leader proposed the prompt start of high-level talks between Latvia and the USSR. He also noted that Latvia had affirmed its independence on August 21 and that this would be all the more reason for such talks. Radio Riga said on August 29 that about 30 countries had recognized the independence of Latvia. (Dzintra Bungs) YELTSIN IN LATVIA. Yeltsin arrived in Riga on August 29, noted Radio Riga that day. The specific purpose of his trip was not known. Western agency reports of August 30 indicated the Yeltsin was expected to talk with Anatolijs Gorbunovs about OMON and recognition by the Soviet Union of the Baltic States, and said, citing Latvian Supreme Council Deputy Tatyana Zhdanok, that an accord has been reached to transfer the OMON units in Latvia to Siberia. (Dzintra Bungs) LATVIAN VISAS. According to Diena of August 28 and 29, the Latvian government has authorized the issuance of visas to foreigners at the Riga airport until September 9, and has instructed its consular and information offices in Europe and North America to start issuing visas as soon as possible to those traveling to Latvia. The Council of Ministers adopted a temporary decision on August 27 that lists regulations concerning the entry and stay of foreign visitors in Latvia. (Dzintra Bungs) JOINT PATROLS ON LATVIAN BORDERS. A protocol was signed on August 29 on border protec-tion. Deputy Prime Minister Ilmars Bisers told Radio Riga that day that there would be Latvian and Soviet border guards at the Latvian-USSR borders. It was not clear if joint patrolling would be done at Latvia's airports. This accord has no effect on the guarding of Latvian-Estonian or Latvian-Lithuania borders. (Dzintra Bungs) LATVIA SIGNS ACCORD WITH KGB. On August29 a protocol was signed in Riga by Latvian and KGB representatives on mutual obligations of the Latvian Supreme Council Presidium and the USSR KGB regarding the Supreme Council's decision of August 24 to disband the KGB in Latvia. According to Radio Riga of August 29, the accord stipulates that the KGB will transfer its property (including control and communications systems, and some archival materials) to Latvia. It was also reported that the KGB would operate (it was not specified where or when) abiding by the laws of the Republic of Latvia. (Dzintra Bungs) DUMAS SIGNS AGREEMENT IN VILNIUS. On August 29 French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas and his Lithuanian counterpart Algirdas Saudargas signed documents restoring formal diplomatic relations, the RFE Lithuanian Service reported that day. Saudargas had just returned from Helsinki where he and Baltic counterparts had signed similar agreements with Finland. Dumas said that France would give Lithuania back its gold and expressed the hope that embassies in the two capitals would be opened the same day. Dumas interrupted his plans to sign similar agreements in Riga and Tallinn to return to Paris for talks with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. (Saulius Girnius) LITHUANIA REQUESTS UN MEMBERSHIP. During the ceremonies, Lithuanian Supreme Council Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis gave Dumas a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar asking for Lithuania to be admitted to the United Nations. Dumas promised to support the request. (Saulius Girnius) LITHUANIAN VISAS. Although the US has not established full diplomatic relations with Lithuania, its legation in Washington has taken its 50-year old visa stamp from a safe and begun to issue visas, The Washington Post reported on August 30. Charge d'affaires Stasys Lozoraitis has already issued about 50 visas without "asking why they want to go or what they want to do, like the Soviet did. The more the merrier." USSR visas are no longer valid for entry into Lithuania, but their owners can get Lithuanian visas on the border. (Saulius Girnius) VILNIUS OMON APPEAL FOR ASYLUM. In a written statement addressed to the leaders of European governments, Major Wladyslaw Makutinowicz, the commander of the OMON unit in Vilnius, appealed for political asylum for 80 members of the unit, The New York Times reported August 30. He said he would not apologize for any of OMON's actions in Lithuania, adding: "I am sorry about only one thing, which is that the USSR no longer exists." He said the unit's members "could be victims of lynch mobs" and doubted that Lithuanian courts would give them fair trials. It is unclear whether any European state would accept them. Lithuanian authorities are unlikely to allow members against whom criminal charges may be filed to leave. (Saulius Girnius) RAND MCNALLY RECOGNIZES BALTS. The Rand McNally map-making company has decided to recognize the independence of the Baltic states, Western agencies reported August 29. The new edition of its Cosmopolitan World Atlas will mark the Baltic countries with broader boundary lines and separate colors. (Saulius Girnius) IN THE REPUBLICS MUTALIBOV RESIGNS FROM CPSU, DENIES COUP INVOLVEMENT. Addressing deputies of the Azerbaijani Supreme Soviet on August 29, republican President and CP first secretary Ayaz Mutalibov resigned his CPSU membership and stepped down as republican CP first secretary, Interfax reported August 29. He further affirmed that the Azerbaijan CP had split from the CPSU and called for an extraordinary Party Congress next month. Mutalibov denied allegations by the Azerbaijani Popular Front that he had expressed support for last week's attempted coup and claimed that none of the demands made by the State of Emergency Committee had been implemented in Azerbaijan. (Liz Fuller) BELORUSSIA TO FORM NATIONAL GUARD. Radio Moscow reported on August 29 that General Colonel Kostenko, the commander of the Belorussian Military District, has announced that the republic will form a national guard that will "defend the interests of Belorussians on their ethnic territory." There are no plans to form a republican army. (Dawn Mann) RUSSIAN DELEGATION TO ALMA-ATA OVER BORDER DISPUTE. Interfax and Soviet of Nationalities chairman Rafik Nishanov reported on August 29 that RSFSR vice-president Aleksandr Rutskoi was leading a delegation to Alma-Ata to calm Kazakh anger over a statement earlier in the week by Yeltsin's spokesman, who said that the RSFSR might have territorial claims on other republics. Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbaev asked Yeltsin to send the representatives to discuss the issue, because public wrath was growing in Kazakhstan. Nazarbaev warned that Kazakhstan might declare its independence as had the Ukraine. (Bess Brown) NAZARBAEV WANTS INTERREPUBLICAN ECONOMIC ACCORD. In his telegram to Yeltsin on the border issue, Nazarbaev also asked Yeltsin to sponsor a meeting of leaders of all republics to sign an economic agreement before the Congress of Peoples' Deputies opens on Monday. The accord is to prevent the complete collapse of the Soviet economy. (Bess Brown) SEMIPALATINSK TEST SITE CLOSED. TASS reported on August 29 that Nazarbaev had signed a decree shutting down the nuclear weapons testing facility in Semipalatinsk Oblast. Nazarbaev left the USSR Supreme Soviet session in order to attend an anti-nuclear demonstration in Alma-Ata, he told an RL correspondent. (Bess Brown) TAJIK OPPOSITION DEMANDS LEADERSHIP RESIGN. Participants in a demonstration organized by opposition parties and movements have demanded the resignation of Tajikistan's three top leaders, according to TASS August 29. Speakers accused the republican leadership of having failed to condemn the Moscow junta. While the demonstration went on outside the Tajik Supreme Soviet building, opposition deputies at a special session of the legislature called for the leadership's resignation and criticized the absence of the Tajik delegation at the current session of the USSR Supreme Soviet. (Bess Brown) DEPOLITICIZATION IN TURKMENISTAN. Turkmenistan's president, Saparmurad Niyazov, has finally decided to join the depoliticization campaign, issuing a decree on August 29 prohibiting political organizations in government agencies, military units and educational institutions, Radio Moscow reported the same day. At the same time, RL's Turkmen Service has learned that several leaders of opposition groups have been arrested, and the republican committee of Afghan War veterans has called on Gorbachev and Yeltsin to intervene against totalitarianism in Turkmenistan. (Bess Brown) KYRGYZSTAN'S CP SUSPENDED FOR SIX MONTHS. Interfax reported on August 29 that Kyrgyzstan's ministry of justice has suspended the activities of the republican Communist Party for six months. CP organizations are forbidden to publish propaganda in the mass media or organize meetings, plenums, conferences or congresses. TASS reported that the Kirgiz government has sealed all Party buildings and seized Party archives. The republican CP reportedly attempted to overthrow president Askar Akaev at the time of the coup in Moscow. (Bess Brown) UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY PLANNED. Ukrainian president Leonid Kravchuk met in Kiev on August 29 with military commanders stationed in the republic, AP reported that day. According to one of Kravchuk's spokesman, Adam Voitovych, the meeting was "an initial step toward establishing our own Ministry of Defense." He added that such a process could take "weeks or months." Voitovych said Kravchuk had sought advice from a number of military commanders on how best to set up and run a Defense Ministry. (Stephen Foye) KRAVCHUK ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Kravchuk also said that nuclear weapons located in the republic should be transferred back to the RSFSR, The Washington Post reported on August 30. He urged that Soviet nuclear forces continue to be controlled by the federal government until the republics decide on a new command structure. He added that some form of joint republican control should then be established. According to the same report, opposition leader Vyachislav Chornovil said that Soviet military officers in Ukraine claim to have received orders to begin transferring nuclear weapons to the RSFSR. He also voiced concern about Russian control of the nuclear arsenal, and suggested that it be placed under United Nations control. (Stephen Foye) KRAVCHUK ON ECONOMIC AGREEMENT. Speaking at a press conference in Kiev yesterday, Kravchuk called for a summit meeting of all Soviet republics to discuss economic ties, Western agencies reported August 29. Kravchuk emphasized that the proposed meeting should take place without President Gorbachev so as to avoid the impression that the center is "dominating matters once again," (Roman Solchanyk) UKRAINE WANTS DIPLOMATIC TIES. The permanent representative of Ukraine to theUN, Gennadii Udovenko, told a press conference Wednesday that Ukraine wants to establish diplomatic relations with the United States, Canada, Israel, and all states with which it shares a border, Radio Kiev and TASS reported August 29. Ukraine's foreign policy should fully reflect its national interests, which may not always correspond to the interests of other republics in the USSR, he said. (Roman Solchanyk) MOLDAVIAN PRESIDENT PRAISES RFE/RL. Moldavian president Mircea Snegur praised RFE/RL broadcasts about Moldavian in recent years and during last week's failed coup in the Soviet Union at a news conference in Kishinev August 28. Answering a question from an RFE/RL correspondent Snegur said: "I would like to point out, for the information of all journalists here, your (RFE/RL's) efforts in maintaining a permanent flow of information from Moldavia to the outside world." (Vlad Socor) DNIESTER LEADER ARRESTED. Igor Smirnov, leader of the self-proclaimed Dniester republic in Moldavia has been arrested, Western agencies reported August 29. Moldavian Interior Minister Ion Costas said that he was arrested by Moldavian police in Kiev, but declined to say whether this had taken place with the agreement of the Ukrainian authorities. The vice-president of the Dniester republic, Andrei Manoilov, said the arrest would fuel tension in the region. (Ann Sheehy) DIPLOMATIC RECOGNITION OF MOLDAVIA. Moldavian president Mircea Snegur and parliament chairman Alexander Moshanu told a press conference in Kishinev on August 28 that Romania and Georgia had recognized Moldavia's independence. Romania and Moldavia signed an agreement August 29 to exchange ambassadors, but TASS reported the same day that Romania's ambassador in Moscow, Vasile Sandru, had been told by USSR Deputy Foreign Minister Yulii Kvitsinsky that the question of Moldavia's independence was solely the business of the USSR. (Ann Sheehy)