RFE/RL DAILY REPORT No. 166 2 September, 1991 ALL-UNION AND RSFSR TOPICS CONGRESS OPENS WITH DECLARATIONS BY GORBACHEV AND HEADS OF TEN REPUBLICS. The USSR Congress of People's Deputies opened September 1 with the reading by Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbaev of declarations addressed to the congress by Gorbachev and the heads of ten republics. The declaration, drawn up in discussions August 31 and early morning September 1, said that, in order to prevent the further collapse of the country's structures of power, the signatories had agreed on the need to take certain actions in the period until a new constitution was adopted. After the declarations were read, a break was called until 1400 hours Moscow time to give deputies time to study them. Gorbachev was sitting in the body of the hall with Yeltsin and Khasbulatov. (Ann Sheehy) DETAILS OF DECLARATIONS. The first declaration stated that the signatories had agreed on the need to draw up and sign a treaty on a Union of Sovereign States, in which each of them "can autonomously determine the form of its participation in the Union," and for all republics to conclude as soon as possible an agreement on an economic union. The declaration went on to outline new structures for the transitional period: a council composed of 20 USSR and republican deputies from by each union republic to decide "general questions of principle;" a state council consisting of the USSR president and the heads of the republics to take agreed decisions on matters of domestic and foreign policy touching the general interests of the republics; and an interrepublican economic committee with equal representation for all republics. (Ann Sheehy) MORE ON DECLARATION. The declaration said the constitution should be approved by the republican parliaments and finally adopted by a congress of representatives of the Union republics. In an apparent effort to mollify USSR deputies for their being sidelined from these processes, the declaration said that they should preserve their status as deputies for the full term for which they were elected. The remaining four points of the declaration concerned preserving joint armed forces, the strict observance of international agreements and obligations, the adoption of a declaration on the rights of individuals and minorities, and an appeal to the congress for support for UN membership for the union republics. The second declaration called on the congress to complete its work in three days and take the necessary measures in connection with the first declaration. (Ann Sheehy) TEN REPUBLICS SIGN DECLARATIONS. The declarations read at the opening of the congress were signed by Gorbachev and the heads of ten republics, namely the nine who had earlier expressed a readiness to sign a new Union treaty and Armenia. Georgia was said to have taken part in the deliberations. (Ann Sheehy) LIBERALS FEAR "CONSTITUTIONAL PUTSCH." Leningrad Mayor Anatolii Sobchak, former USSR minister for Environment Nikolai Vorontsov, and the leadership of the Movement for Democratic Reforms have warned that the USSR Congress of People's Deputies may provide "a stage for the reactionaries to avenge themselves," according to "Vesti" on September 1. The liberals fear that conservative deputies may have the two-thirds majority necessary to replace Gorbachev with a leader more to their taste. Deputy Yurii Karyakin has predicted that there will be at least two attempts to replace Gorbachev at the Congress, and called on Muscovites to defend the Kremlin against a constitutional putsch. (Julia Wishnevsky) SOBCHAK DEFENDS UNION. Leningrad mayor Anatolii Sobchak has emerged as the main defender of the Union. He told the USSR Supreme Soviet on August 29 that the center should remain as a coordinator and arbiter between the republics and the USSR Supreme Soviet should remain as a "symbol of state power." According to Sobchak, only the Baltic states should be granted immediate independence; the other republics must negotiate their independence with the center. Western news agencies reported on August 30 that Sobchak's candidacy is being seriously considered for the post of chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet. (Alexander Rahr) MDR ADVISES CONGRESS TO WORK TOWARDS A NEW USSR. On the eve of the extraordinary session of the Congress of Peoples Deputies, the political council of the Movement for Democratic Reforms warned that the Congress could be, "an arena for revenge by reactionary forces," and called on Deputies to work toward an new relationship between sovereign states, TASS reported September 1. The MDR leadership asked the Congress to avoid engaging in, "neobolshevism, fanaticism, and intolerance of any sort," and take concrete measures to develop a multiparty system. The statement suggests that recently seized Communist Party assets be used to finance other political parties. (Carla Thorson) NEW CHIEF EDITOR FOR MOSCOW NEWS. The political commentator of Moscow News, Len Karpinsky, has been elected chief editor by the weekly's staff, Central TV reported August 30. He replaced Yegor Yakovlev, who was appointed by Gorbachev to head the All-Union TV and Radio Broadcasting Company. (Vera Tolz) JOURNALISTS IN CENTRAL COMMITTEE ARCHIVES. On August 30, a group of Soviet and foreign journalists was allowed to tour the archives of the CPSU CC for the first time in Soviet history. Radio Rossii quoted the journalists as saying that these archives have most sophisticated equipment, in particular special filing cabinets with shredders mounted inside. The shredders start working when people who don't know the codes open the drawers. An independent Moscow journalist, Dmitrii Volchek, told RL on August 30 that some documents have already been destroyed by such filing cabinets. (Vera Tolz) PRAVDA REAPPEARS. Pravda, which is no longer the organ of the CPSU CC, reappeared on August 31. On its front page, the daily published an appeal to readers for donations to secure its publication. The appeal said that recent events have resulted in the loss of its financial base. (Vera Tolz) SCANDALS IN WRITERS' UNION. At the request of Evgenii Evtushenko, the prefect of Central Moscow suspended the activities of the RSFSR Writers' Union on August 30 and ordered their building sealed, according to a TASS report of August 31). The union's leadership has been accused of laying the ideological foundation for the coup and directly supporting it. About 100 writers spent the night in the building to prevent the sealing. On September 1, Central and RSFSR TV reported that the RSFSR delegation had walked out of a plenum of the USSR Writers' Union called by liberals who had replaced the conservative leadership of the union the previous week. (Julia Wishnevsky) AFTERMATH OF PUTSCH IN RSFSR REPUBLICS. In the wake of the coup, "under pressure from democratic forces" the president of Kabardino-Balkaria, and the whole leadership of the republic has resigned and the parliament has been dissolved, TSN reported August 31. In Checheno-Ingushetia demonstrations demanding the resignation of the leadership for supporting the coup are in their twelfth day, and the center of Groznyi is barricaded with buses, trolleybuses, and concrete slabs, the Soviet media reported September 1 and 2. The all-national congress of the Chechen people has proclaimed the dissolution of the supreme soviet and creation of a temporary republican committee. In Buryatia "Democratic Buryatia" is picketing the government building and collecting funds to send a delegation to Yeltsin to denounce the republican supreme soviet for its role during the coup, TASS reported August 30. Democratic forces are also questioning the actions of the local leadership during the coup in Mordovia and North Ossetia. (Ann Sheehy) YELTSIN DEFENDS ARMY. In a move to strengthen his relations with the Soviet Army, RSFSR President Boris Yeltsin praised the role of the Armed Forces in defending democracy during the coup. In an address broadcast by Radio Rossii on August 29, Yeltsin said that he will defend the Army from unjustified criticism. Yeltsin also said that the major role of a new center, to be created by the republics, will be control over nuclear weapons. He said there will be no large central bureaucracy and promised that the democrats now in power will not create a dictatorship. (Alexander Rahr) YELTSIN ON RUSSIAN DEFENCE. RSFSR President Boris Yeltsin has decreed the limiting of Russian defence contributions to the central Soviet budget beginning in 1992, Western new agencies reported on August 30. He also ordered the RSFSR Defence Committee to start working on military reform. The new RSFSR defence minister Grachev, also USSR first deputy defence minister, took over personal control of the former KGB spetsnaz troops, according to Novosti on September 30. The Los Angeles Times on August 31 quoted Yeltsin as saying that Russia will form its own national guard of 3,000-4,000 men. (Alexander Rahr) YURII PROKOF'EV: "IT WAS POLITICAL SHOW, NOT PUTSCH". The former first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, said on RSFSR TV during a search of his office on August 30 that he thought the coup was a political farce. Prokof'ev, who has been arrested for his role in the coup, was not asked specific questions in order not to endanger the investigation. (Victor Yasmann) SHAPOSHNIKOV ON ARMY'S COUP ROLE. Continuing his assault on the media, Defense Ministry Evgenii Shaposhnikov over the weekend gave interviews to Krasnaya zvezda (August 31), "Vesti" (August 28), and Moscow Central Television (August 29). On August 30 he issued an appeal to the armed forces carried by TASS. In his remarks, Shaposhnikov stressed several themes. One was that the armed forces as a whole were not at fault for the recent coup, and that only those who issued commands on behalf of the plotters should, and will, be prosecuted. (Stephen Foye) ON MILITARY REFORM. Shaposhnikov also said military reform would be accelerated and that the USSR would gradually move toward a professional army. Compulsory military service will be reduced from two years to eighteen months and alternative service will be considered. A "main military-political directorate" with broad authority will be established in place of the Defense Ministry Inspectorate General and the Main Political Administration, he added. Shaposhnikov also suggested that he would be willing to give up his commission and to serve as a civilian Defense Minister. On the subject of Moscow and the republics, he urged significant participation of republican governments in defense matters, but called for retention of a unified federal army. (Stephen Foye) NEW DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTERS NAMED. On August 31 Gorbachev appointed three new deputy defense ministers: Colonel General Vladimir Semenov, to head the Ground Forces; Colonel General Viktor Prudnikov, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defense Forces; and Colonel General Petr Deynekin, to head the Air Force. Semenov--who replaces the arrested General Valentin Varennikov--is a USSR People's Deputy and was a member of the Communist Party Central Committee. He was serving as Commander of the Transbaikal Military District. Prudnikov succeeds Army General Ivan Tret'yak. He was also a Central Committee member and had been serving as commander of the Moscow air defense forces. Deynekin had been commander of Long Range Aviation. (Stephen Foye) NEW COMMANDER OF AIRBORNE TROOPS. Gorbachev also named Lieutenant General Evgenii Podkolzin as the new commander of Soviet Airborne Forces. He succeeds Pavel Grachev, who has been appointed a Deputy Defense Minister and Chairman of the RSFSR Defense and Security Committee. (Stephen Foye) USSR DEFENSE COMMITTEE DISSOLVED. The Committee on Defense and Security was dissolved on August 30 during the extraordinary session of the USSR Supreme Soviet, Interfax reported that same day. The Committee, which has long been criticized by liberals for its ineffectiveness, was accused of inactivity during the coup. (Stephen Foye) MOISEEV SAYS HE CONTROLLED NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Former General Staff Chief Mikhail Moiseev said in the Corriere Della Sera over the weekend that he alone controlled the Soviet strategic nuclear weapons force during the coup, according to an August 30 AFP report. Moiseev claimed that both Gorbachev and former Defense Minister Yazov were incapable of ordering use of the weapons. The report remains unconfirmed. (Stephen Foye) DOSAAF ACTIVITIES SUSPENDED. The activities of DOSAAF-- the Voluntary Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Fleet--have been suspended, its archives and buildings sealed, and its bank accounts frozen, Moscow Central Television reported on September 1. It did not say by whom. The organization was apparently implicated in the coup. On the same day, Radio Mayak reported that Moscow mayor Popov signed a decree suspending DOSAAF activities in the Soviet capital. DOSAAF was established in 1951 as an official "patriotic-defense" organization whose goal was to involve Soviet teenagers in defense-related training activities. It's membership in the 1980's reportedly approached 100 million. (Stephen Foye) PANKIN IMPLICATES MFA OFFICIALS. Speaking on Soviet TV on August 30, Foreign Minister Boris Pankin said that the signatures of Aleksandr Bessmertnykh and Yuliy Kvitsinsky were on coup orders which Pankin received while he was posted as ambassador to Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, Valentin Falin, Chief of the CPSU's International Department, protested the search (August 29) of his apartment and dacha by authorities looking for evidence of his participation in the coup. "I strongly protest against what has happened. I ask to have the relevant committee of the Supreme Soviet sort this out," Falin said to the Supreme Soviet on August 30, Western agencies reported. (Suzanne Crow) BESSMERTNYKH'S DENIAL. In an August 31 Komsomolskaya pravda interview, former Foreign Minister Aleksandr Bessmertnykh said Gorbachev "has no right" to describe members of the emergency committee as criminals without first having a trial. He added, "I feel no need to justify myself. It's not my duty to prove what I say is true. Let them prove my guilt." (Suzanne Crow) PETROVSKY PROMOTED, OTHERS OUT. Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Petrovsky was promoted to First Deputy Foreign Minister, TASS reported September 1. Yuliy Kvitsinsky, appointed First Deputy Foreign Minister on May 15, 1991, was dismissed. (Suzanne Crow) MAJOR IN MOSCOW. British Prime Minister John Major and Foreign Minister Douglas Hurd were on Moscow on September 1 for a one-day visit. During talks between Hurd and Pankin, the Soviet diplomat expressed gratitude for Britain's strong opposition to the coup leaders saying that this stance helped strengthen democratic forces in the Soviet Union. (Suzanne Crow) BALTIC STATES LATVIA CALLS FOR WITHDRAWAL OF SOVIET TROOPS. The Supreme Council adopted a resolution calling for the complete and prompt withdrawal of USSR armed forces from Latvia, reported Radio Riga on August 31. The resolution also asked the governments of the United States, Great Britain, and France to support this dema nd and to appeal to UN member states for their support. (Dzintra Bungs) OMON TROOPS LEAVE LATVIA. Latvians welcomed the withdrawal of 109 of the feared OMON troops on August 31 and September 1. As they were leaving some of the men tossed smoke bombs at the onlookers and threatened to return. Also leaving were 15 families of the OMON members. They were flown to Pskov, from where they were expected to be taken to Tyumen in western Siberia. The OMON units agreed to leave only after the Latvian authorities promised to grant them and their families safe passage out of Latvia and to grant amnesty to those not involved in killings. According to Latvian and Western media dispatches of September 1, about 40 OMON were missing, and one had been arrested. (Dzintra Bungs) BALTIC COUNCIL DISCUSSES FINANCES. On August 29 representatives from the Baltic government experts on finance, economics, power industry, and material resources met under the auspices of the Baltic Council. They discussed economic policy, development of finances, organization of commodity turnover, and property issues, especially those involving also the USSR. Two commissions were formed: one for the settlement of accounts based on the principles which underlay the transactions between the USSR and the former members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance; the other for modernizing the banki ng system, reported Interfax on August 30. (Dzintra Bungs) NORTHEASTERN ESTONIA TO VOTE AGAIN. The Estonian Supreme Council has scheduled new municipal elections in Narva, Kohtla-Jarve and Sillamae, Rahva Haal reported on August 30. The Supreme Council voted on August 28 to hold new elections in those cities on October 20, 1991. The decision was prompted by those cities' systematic non-compliance with republic laws for over one year, and follows moves to prosecute city officials from those northeastern Estonia who actively supported last month's coup. (Riina Kionka) ESTONIA FAVORS ABOLITION. Estonia wants the Congress of Peoples' Deputies to rescind the 1940 annexation decision as a means of recognizing the independence of the Baltic states, according to DPA, quoting the Swedish News Agency TT on September 1. Deputy Speaker of the Estonian Supreme Council Marju Lauristin told reporters that day that "the easiest and most flexible [solution] would be for the Congress [of Peoples' Deputies] simply to annul the 1940 decision to annexe the Baltic states," Lauristin said. The Congress of Peoples' Deputies is meeting today (Sept.2) to consider, among other issues, Baltic independence. (Riina Kionka) EUROPEANS MOVE TO ESTABLISH DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH LATVIA. French Minister of Foreign Affairs Roland Dumas visited Riga on August 30 to formally resume diplomatic relations with Latvia and promised to cosponsor Latvia's request to join the UN. Italian Foreign Undersecretary Claudio Vitalone was in Riga on August 31 also to restore diplomatic relations with the Baltics. Radio Riga announced on September 1 that Count Hagen Lambsdorf had been appointed as Germany's envoy to Latvia and that Lars Freden was serving as temporary head Sweden's mission in Riga. (Dzintra Bungs) MAJOR MEETS BALTIC PRIME MINISTERS. On September 1 British Prime Minister John Major met in Moscow with his Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian counterparts, Edgar Savisaar, Ivars Godmanis, and Gediminas Vagnorius for about 40 minutes, the RFE Lithuanian Service reported on September 2. Major told them that technical questions on British representation in the Baltic states would be solved later in the week during visits by a British deputy foreign minister. The Baltic foreign ministers were also invited to attend an EC session this week in Brussels that would discuss economic aid for their countries. (Saulius Girnius) USSR RECOGNITION OF BALTIC INDEPENDENCE. In an interview with CNN on September 1 Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said that Baltic independence would be "consistent" with his approach to Soviet reform if it were "the final will of the people". He implied that the Balts may have to follow the provisions of the Soviet law on secession. It is not clear whether the USSR Congress of People's Deputies will deal with Baltic independence at its session today (September 2) since it is the 5th item on the agenda. The Balts have forbidden their deputies to participate in the session and will only send observers. (Saulius Girnius) OMON WITHDRAWS FROM LITHUANIA. On August 31 Lithuanian parliament spokesman Audrius Azubalis said that Vilnius garrison commander Colonel Valerii Frolov had told him that 47 members of the Vilnius OMON had been disarmed and left Lithuania, 33 had refused to leave, and another 50 had disappeared, Radio Independent Lithuania reported that day. A Soviet television reporter said that the OMON troops would drive to Pskov and then fly to their new assignment in Tyumen. (Saulius Girnius) KGB WITHDRAWAL FROM LITHUANIA. Balys Gajauskas, a former political prisoner who had been imprisoned for 37 years, visited the KGB headquarters in Vilnius in which he had been confined for about a year, overseeing the sealing of its files, some of which unfortunately had already been removed, the RFE Lithuanian Service reported on August 31. After extensive trips around Lithuania last week, parliament deputy Zita Slizyte reported that the local authorities had closed all the KGB offices, but there had been several instances where the sealing of their files had been improperly conducted. Many KGB officials have turned in their weapons to their chiefs who in turn gave them to the Lithuanian authorities. (Saulius Girnius) SOVIET OLYMPIC COMMITTEE SUPPORTS BALTS. On August 30 the Soviet Olympic Committee voted to endorse requests by the three Baltic republics to restore their independent status in the Olympic games, Western agencies reported that day. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Committee is likely to approve the Baltics' request at its next scheduled meeting in Berlin on September 17 allowing them to participate in the Barcelona games in 1992. (Saulius Girnius) IN THE REPUBLICS COMMUNIST PARTY BANNED IN UKRAINE. The Presidium of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet on Friday banned the Communist Party of Ukraine, Ukrinform-TASS and Western agencies reported August 31. The decision was based on the findings of the Presidium's commission investigating the activities of public figures in connection with the attempted coup. Radio Kiev reported the same day that the original of a document from the Central Committee of the republican Communist Party has been found which instructs Party organizations to support the coup leaders. The document is signed by Stanislav Hurenko, first secretary of the Ukrainian Party, and other Central Committee secretaries. (Roman Solchanyk) KRAVCHUK ON EMERGING "TSARIST EMPIRE." Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Chairman of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet Leonid Kravchuk warned against an emerging Russian "tsarist empire," Western news agencies reported August 31. Kravchuk's remark was made in connection with the statement issued on August 26 by Boris Yeltsin's press secretary that the RSFSR reserved the right to reexamine borders with those republics, apart from the three Baltic states, that were declaring themselves independent. Several republican leaders last week expressed reservation about the RSFSR's growing role after the failed coup. (Roman Solchanyk) AZERBAIJAN "RESTORES" INDEPENDENCE. The Azerbaijani Supreme Soviet voted August 30 to restore the independent status the republic had enjoyed in 1918-1920, TASS reported August 30. Adherents of the Azerbaijani Popular Front were quoted by The Guardian (August 31) as arguing that the independence declaration was a political ploy by President Ayaz Mutalibov aimed at neutralizing political opposition within the republic prior to the presidential elections scheduled for September 8; Zardusht Ali-Zade, the only candidate running against Mutalibov for the presidency, announced August 30 that he had withdrawn his candidacy, Interfax reported August 31. (Liz Fuller) ARMENIA NATIONALIZES CP PROPERTY. The Armenian parliament presidium nationalized voted August 29 to nationalize all property belonging to the Armenian CP, including its headquarters in Erevan and Party bank accounts, Radio Erevan reported August 30. The Armenian CP archives will be turned over to the Republic of Armenia. The Armenian CP will convene an extraordinary congress on September 7 at which it will vote on self-liquidation; some Armenian communists have plans for the foundation of a new party, Tass announced August 31. (Liz Fuller) NKAO DEPUTIES OPPOSE AZERBAIJAN'S INDEPENDENCE. Four Armenian deputies to the USSR SupSov from Nagorno-Karabakh have appealed to the parliaments of the USSR and the RSFSR to grant "special status" within the USSR to Nagorno-Karabakh and the Shaumyan raion of Azerbaijan following Azerbaijan's August 30 declaration of independence, TASS reported August 31. (Liz Fuller) CP FUNCTIONARIES ARRESTED IN GEORGIA. Georgian CP second secretary Serfei Rigvava and the editor of the party daily newspaper, Otar Ioseliani, were arrested August 31 and their homes searched, according to an unconfirmed Western agency report of September 1. Sixty-five CP deputies to the Georgian parliament were removed from office August 30; the opposition National Democratic Party has called for a demonstration in Tbilisi today to press for the resignation of Georgian president Zviad Gamsakhurdia. (Liz Fuller) UZBEKISTAN, KYRGYZSTAN DECLARE INDEPENDENCE. TASS reported on August 31 that the Supreme Soviets of both Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan had voted to declare the republics independent of the USSR. In both cases, the declarations seem to have been motivated by a desire to give the republics greater maneuvering room in negotiating a new confederation. (Bess Brown) MAKHKAMOV RESIGNS. Radio Moscow and Interfax reported on August 31 that the Supreme Soviet of Tajikistan had voted no confidence in republican president Kakhar Makhkamov, who then resigned. A large group of demonstrators gathered in front of the Supreme Soviet building had been demanding his ouster because of his role in suppressing demonstrations in Dushanbe in February 1990. (Bess Brown) DNIESTER RUSSIANS THREAT TO CUT MOLDAVIA' ENERGY SUPPLIES. An extraordinary session of Tiraspol' city soviet (which doubles as the parliament of the self-styled Dniester republic) has issued an ultimatum to the Moldavia authorities to release by September 2 local deputies arrested for alleged support for the failed coup, Radio Moscow reported August 31. The Dniester threatened economic sanctions, in particular the cutting of electricity and gas supplies to the rest of Moldavia if its demand was not met. (Ann Sheehy)