RFE/RL DAILY REPORT No. 167 September 3, 1991 USSR--ALL-UNION TOPICS AND RSFSR PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS. The afternoon session of the congress on September 2 heard statements from republican delegations on the 10 plus one declaration proposing the creation of new structures to govern the country in the transitional period. All approved them in the main. However, several RSFSR deputies called them unconstitutional. Leningrad deputy Aleksandr Obolensky called for putting the removal of Gorabchev as president on the agenda. Several deputies called for recognition of the independence of the republics. In reply Gorbachev proposed that the congress presidium hold more consultations on these declarations, including those of the Baltic states. He said this did not mean that the Baltic declarations had been dropped from the Congress agenda. (Ann Sheehy) SOBCHAK DEFENDS GORBACHEV. Leningrad mayor Anatolii Sobchak categorically rejected demands for Gorbachev's resignation, TASS reported on September 2. Speaking at a meeting with RSFSR Congress deputies, Sobchak said that Gorbachev should remain as a "symbol of union statehood" during a transitional period of two to three months. Gorbachev's future, Sobchak said, will depend on what kind of a reformer he proves to be. Sobchak's views were supported by RSFSR Vice-President Aleksandr Rutskoi, who also spoke in favor of Gorbachev. Aleksandr Obolensky, a leading member of the liberal Interregional Group, had called at the Congress for Gorbachev to be impeached (Central TV, September 1). (Alexander Rahr) SOBCHAK FOR STRONGER ALL-UNION STRUCTURES. In an interview on Central TV on September 2, Anatolii Sobchak criticized the proposed structure of the USSR State Council. According to the proposal, the Council should consist of the USSR president and the leaders of those republics which remain in the union. Sobchak said that other leading officials of all-union bodies, such as all-union political parties, must be included in the State Council, adding that the Council should not become a "puppet" in the hands of republican leaders. But Sobchak also stressed that in future the center will play a lesser role than will the republics. (Alexander Rahr) CONSTITUTIONAL COMPLIANCE COMMITTEE ON NEW INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURES. In an announcement reported by TASS, the Constitutional Compliance Committee endorsed the new institutional structures for governing the USSR proposed by Gorbachev and leaders of the republics during the opening session of the Congress of People's Deputies September 2. The Committee noted that the creation of these new bodies requires significant changes to the USSR Constitution which can only be carried out by the Congress. (Carla Thorson) DOCUMENTS ON COUP PUBLISHED. On August27, Komsomol'skaya pravda published documents indicating that the KGB went on alert at 10m on the day before the coup, which the KGB Collegium supported. The military went on alert on August 19 at 4:30 a.m. An RSFSR shadow cabinet, supported by the Sverdlovsk Oblast Soviet and local OMON, was set up in the woods in the oblast and kept the rest of the USSR informed about Yeltsin's activities On August 30, TASS published secret telegrams sent to the State Emergency Committee by CPSU CC Secretary Oleg Shenin in which he supported the coup. (Alexander Rahr) JUNTA DETENTION LIST WAS FAKE. A top-secret list of twenty-two top RSFSR highest officials whose detention was supposedly ordered by the junta was a fabrication, according to Evgenii Lisov, head of the team of interrogators investigating the coup, in the August 28 issue of Izvestia. Nezavisimaya gazeta published a photocopy of the list, the first name on which was that of Boris Yeltsin, in its August 19-22 special issue. Nezavisimaya gazeta's chief editor, Viktor Tret'yakov, said that a package of secret instructions supposedly issued by the junta was given to the newspaper's watchman by an unknown man. Lisov asked the mass media to avoid publication of questionable information. (Victor Yasmann) "ALFA" OFFICERS EXPLAIN MOTIVES. In an interview on the September 1 segment of "Before and After Midnight," two officers of the KGB's "Alfa" anti-terrorist squad said that the squad's officers had defied a threat of court-martial when they refused to storm the Russian White House at 3:00 a.m. on August 21. This was the first time they had ever refused an order. They reasoned that Yeltsin and his supporters were not guilty of terrorism, and an attack on the building would have resulted in heavy casualties. Many of their own friends and relatives were among the defenders of the "White House." (Julia Wishnevsky) PROCURATOR'S OFFICE WARNS DEMONSTRATORS IN GROZNYI. The Chechen-Ingush Procurator's Office ordered the organizers of the mass demonstrations that have been going on for eleven days in the republican capital Groznyi to evacuate all the premises they have seized and clear the streets of barricades, TASS reported September 2. TASS commented that the demonstrators, who are demanding the immediate resignation of the local leadership, seemed determined to continue their protest. (Ann Sheehy) TASS EDITORIAL BOARD RESIGNS. In connection with the reforms underway at TASS, members of the news agency's editorial board proposed that the board resign. TASS reported on September 2 that the agency's new director general, Vitalii Ignatenko, had accepted the resignation, but asked all board members to continue carrying out their duties until new administrative bodies are appointed. The TASS reform plan stipulates that the news agency be transformed from a governmental agency into an independent one. (Vera Tolz) BURLATSKY COMPLAINS OF MISTREATMENT. The former chief editor of Literaturnaya gazeta, Fedor Burlatsky, complained in a letter read on Radio Moscow on August 30 that accusations that he had not taken a stand on principle against the coup were unfounded. Burlatsky said that his ouster as chief editor was arranged by his first deputy, not the staff as reported by Izvestia. during the coup. He also stated that his first deputy had foiled his attempt to have the weekly published despite the junta's ban. (Vera Tolz) GDLYAN AND IVANOV CLEARED. USSR State Prosecutor Nikolai Trubin has dropped charges against former investigators Tel'man Gdlyan and Nikolai Ivanov, Radio Moscow reported on August 31. In 1989, Gdlyan and Ivanov publicly accused a number of top Kremlin officials, including Egor Ligachev, of involvement in the Uzbek corruption case. Immediately afterwards, Gdlyan and Ivanov were charged with having mistreated detainees. Public opinion, and their status as USSR People's Deputies, prevented their arrest and trial. During the coup, Gdlyan was briefly detained by the military, in violation of his immunity, on the order of the junta. (Julia Wishnevsky) MORE GENERALS NAMED AS CONSPIRATORS. Radio Moscow reported on August 31 that a recent special edition of the newspaper Rossia (date not provided) identified several more members of the High Command who, it claimed, participated actively in the coup. They are Colonel General Nikolai Shlyaga, recently ousted as Head of the Main Political Administration; Colonel General Aleksandr Ovchinnikov, a first Deputy Chief of the same organization; Colonel General Aleksandr Soshnikov, identified as a Presidential aide attached to Oleg Baklanov; Lieutenant General Mikhail Surkov, Secretary of the All-Army Party Committee; Colonel General Vladislav Achalov, was a Deputy Defense Minister; and a Lieutenant General Guchmazov, identified as an aide to Pavlov. (Stephen Foye) MORE DEFENSE MINISTRY APPOINTMENTS. TASS announced on September 2 the naming of two new military district commanders. They are the new commander of the Transbaikal Military District, Valerii Tret'yakov, a fifty year-old Lieutenant General who has served since October, 1988, as First Deputy Commander of the Transbaikal Military District, and the new commander of the prestigious Moscow Military District, Vladimir Toporov, a forty-five year-old Lieutenant General who has served since February, 1989, as Chief of Staff of the Far East Military District. Several changes were also reportedly made in the central Defense Ministry apparatus and in the General Staff. (Stephen Foye) LOBOV ON STUDENTS, MILITARY REFORM. General Staff Chief Vladimir Lobov said in the September 2 issue of Izvestia that the armed forces will no longer conscript students. Reports that student deferments would be ended preceded the recent coup attempt. Lobov also said that he was working to end the draft altogether, in favor of a professional army. He argued that the army had become overly politicized in the months before the coup and "that many generals and officers had forgotten their main purpose." Izvestia reported that Lobov had been disgraced in December of 1986 when, as Commander of the Central Asian Military District, he refused to involve his troops in ethnic clashes in Alma Ata. (Stephen Foye) NEW NUCLEAR TEST TUNNEL. Norwegian environmentalists charged on August 30 that the USSR has dug a new tunnel for nuclear testing on the arctic island of Novaya Zemlya, Reuter reported. A spokesman for the environmental group said that the tunnel was finished this spring. A Soviet nuclear test on the island last October raised complaints from the Scandinavian countries. The Novaya Zemlya site has been developed as a result of popular opposition to nuclear testing at what was a more regularly used test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. (Stephen Foye) OIL PRODUCTION CONTINUES TO PLUMMET. The Soviet minister of the chemical and petroleum processing ministry, Salambek Khadzhiev, told "Infonova" August 28 that his ministry's ability to provide fuel is not expected to improve in the foreseeable future. Khadzhiev listed several reasons, including a seemingly irreversible drop in oil production (oil output could fall to 500 million tons this year), the disintegration of economic linkages throughout the country, and a general lack of discipline in the economy and society, including among the country's leadership organs. (John Tedstrom) OIL PRICES TO RISE IN RSFSR? The announcement of the RSFSR leadership's intention to raise the price of petroleum products has met with considerable criticism recently. Khadziev, for his part, argues that prices ought to be freed. In an interview with "Infonova" August 28, former presidential advisor Nikolai Petrakov said that he felt the measure was populistic, and did not take into account important economic factors. Yeltsin promised Tyumen' oil workers he would adjust oil prices in the RSFSR and renegotiate prices with the other republics. Oil industry official expect fuel prices to triple as a result. (John Tedstrom) GRU CHIEF ON COUP. The head of Soviet military intelligence (GRU), Vladlen Mikhailov, said in a statement published in Komsomol'skaya pravda on August 29 that during the coup, the General Staff did not order the activation of the GRU special units (speznaz and osnaz) attached to every military district. The GRU speznaz would have beenunsuitable to storm the RSFSR Supreme Soviet building, Mikhailov said; also, its defense was headed by RSFSR Defense Minister Konstantin Kobets, a former subordinate of Mikhailov. (Victor Yasmann) MORE ABOUT GRU. In the same issue of Komsomol'skaya pravda, one of the defenders of the RSFSR SupSov, GRU Colonel Aleksandr Kondrashov, confirmed Mikhailov's statement that the GRU was not involved in the coup, but said that the GRU speznaz was actively involved in the interethnic conflicts in the Transcaucasus. Also, the GRU Satellite Intelligence Center made many photos of Vilnius and other Baltic cities on the eve of the crackdown in January. On August 19, GRU officers in civilian clothes were sent to assess the temper of the protesters in Moscow. (Victor Yasmann) LENINGRAD KGB INVESTIGATES US-ISRAELI ESPIONAGE CASE. Pravda reported on August 31 that the Leningrad KGB is investigating the case of Sergei Bychkov, an instructor of the Leningrad Oblast Committee of the CPSU and director of the commercial information firm "Expert," who is suspected of having collected confidential information about Leningrad city authorities and the city CP organization for US and Israeli secret services, with which he established contact in 1990. The City Council's committee investigating the role of the CPSU in the coup is also interested in Bychkov's information. (Victor Yasmann) PATRIARCH DEFENDS METROPOLITANS. The central TV news show "TSN" reported on September2 the receipt of a statement from Patriarch Aleksii II, expressing his deep regret that "TSN" had quoted from an article in Kuranty on the attitudes of members of the Russian Orthodox Church hierarchy to the coup. The Patriarch said that the article had been published without the accuracy of its information, which reflects negatively on some members of the hierarchy, having been checked adequately. (Oxana Antic) PATRIARCH PROTESTS KURANTY CHARGES. Izvestia reported on August 30 that it had received a letter from Patriarch Aleksii II addressed to the chief editor of the Moscow newspaper Kuranty, who had refused to publish it. In the letter, the Patriarch refuted statements in the Kuranty article "Glory and Shame of the Church," claiming that there had been a disagreement between the Patriarch and certain metropolitans concerning the coup. The Patriarch stated that all of the Church hierarchs shared his position on the coup. (Oxana Antic) MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR VICTIMS OF KOREAN JET. TASS reported on September 1 that a memorial service for the victims of the Korean Airlines jet shot down in 1983 was held on the ship "Yurii Trifonov." About 100 relatives of the victims and representatives of the ministries of foreign affairs of the USSR, RSFSR, and Republic of Korea attended. This was the first time that the victims were honored in this way. The South Korean ambassador to the USSR spoke to the gathering and expressed hope that the circumstances of the tragedy will be cleared up. (Oxana Antic) HOLY SYNOD APPEAL TO BELIEVERS. TASS reported on August 31 that the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has said in an appeal to believers that it unanimously supports the actions of Patriarch Aleksii II during the coup and his plea the constitution and laws be respected. The Holy Synod also said that it hopes a new page has been started in the history of the country, as well as in the history of the Church. (Oxana Antic) NEW FOREIGN MINISTRY APPOINTMENTS. Yurii Deryabin, formerly head of the CSCE department at the foreign ministry, has been elevated to Deputy Foreign Minister. Valerii Kinyaykin was named acting head of the main administration for personnel and educational establishments, TASS reported September 2. Deryabin fills one of the two deputy foreign minister slots recently vacated by Vladimir Petrovsky and Valentin Nikiforov. (Suzanne Crow) PANKIN ON OTHER REPLACEMENTS. Soviet Foreign Minister Boris Pankin told Interfax September 2 the activities of the MFA and all its foreign missions will be analyzed. He dismissed rumors that 30 Soviet ambassadors would be replaced. (Suzanne Crow) CUBA REACTS TO CHANGES. The August 29 Granma carried an editorial pledging Cuba to follow the path of socialism unflinchingly, despite changes in the Soviet Union. It also expressed the hope that the USSR preserve its unity so that "it remains a factor of real power on the earth." The editorial noted that Cuba's proximity to the United States and the "mortal danger of US hegemony" give Cuba a unique appreciation for the "historical necessity" of the Soviet Union. Granma also took a shot at Germany saying, "Whether the third millennium reserves for us a Third Reich will greatly depend upon the existence of the Soviet Union." (Suzanne Crow) USSR--OTHER REPUBLICS KRAVCHUK ON RUSSIAN HEGEMONY. Chairman of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet Leonid Kravchuk held a press conference yesterday at which he once again expressed his reservation about Russia supplanting the Soviet Union. He said that this was reflected in the composition of the interim committee headed by Russian Prime Minister Silaev, where "the interests of one republic" predominate. Kravchuk also told reporters that the future of the USSR is likely to take shape in the form of a confederation. (Roman Solchanyk) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES IN UKRAINE. The Grand Council of "Rukh," which concluded its session on September 1 in Kiev, nominated former political prisoner Vyacheslav Chornovil as its candidate in the December 1 presidential elections in Ukraine, Radio Kiev reported the same day. Chornovil is a Ukrainian people's deputy and head of the Lvov Oblast Soviet. The Ukrainian Republican Party, one of the largest and most influential in the republic, chose another former political prisoner, Levko Lukyanenko, as its candidate, Western agencies reported. (Roman Solchanyk) DEMONSTRATIONS IN WESTERN UKRAINE. Thousands of people in Ternopil' and Lvov demonstrated in support of Ukrainian independence, Radio Kiev reported September 2. The meeting in Lvov, organized by the Ukrainian Republican Party, is estimated to have been attended by over 200,000 people. (Roman Solchanyk) POLICE ATTACK DEMONSTRATORS IN TBILISI. Up to six people were wounded September2 when police fired shots and used truncheons against participants in a demonstration in Tbilisi organized by the opposition National Democratic Party to demand the resignation of Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia and the release of the paramilitary leader Dzhaba Ioseliani, who was arrested in February, Western news agencies reported from Moscow September 2. (Liz Fuller) NAGORNO-KARABAKH DECLARES INDEPENDENCE. A joint session of the Nagorno-Karabakh Oblast soviet and the local soviet of the adjacent Shaumyan raion, both of which are inhabited predominantly by Armenians, declared the region the "NagornoKarabakh Armenian Republic" September 2, three days after Azerbaijan declared its independence from the USSR. The two councils ruled that the USSR Constitution and laws are valid on the territory of the new republic, USSR Radio reported September 2. (Liz Fuller) AZERBAIJAN POPULAR FRONT CALLS FOR GENERAL STRIKE. The Azerbaijan Popular Front called September 2 for a general strike beginning September 3 to press for postponement of the presidential elections scheduled for September 8, in which the incumbent Ayaz Mutalibov is the sole candidate, Western news agencies reported September 2 quoting the Azerbaijan Assa-Irada news agency. (Liz Fuller) KAZAKH PREMIER IN FRANCE. TASS and Western news agencies reported on September 2 that Kazakhstan's prime minister Uzakbai Karamanov met with French premier Edith Cresson to discuss a joint oil project. The state-owned Elf Aquitaine oil company is negotiating a contract to exploit petroleum resources in Kazakhstan. The republic wants France to increase direct economic ties. (Bess Brown) SELF-STYLED DNIESTER REPUBLIC DECLARES INDEPENDENCE. The parliament of the self-styled Dniester SSR voted September2 to declare its independence from the rest of Moldavia, Western agencies reported September2. Five thousand gathered in the central square of Tiraspol' to celebrate. They also called for the release of the Dniester republic's president, Igor Smirnov. About 600 people, mainly women, blocked the main railway lines to Kishinev and Odessa, demanding freedom for Smirnov. TASS reported September 2 that a congress of deputies of all levels on the left bank of the Dniester had adopted the republic's constitution and decided to set up a national guard. (Ann Sheehy) BALTIC STATES US RECOGNIZES THE BALTIC STATES. On September 2 President Bush announced US diplomatic recognition of the Baltic States, reported Western agencies that day. He authorized Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Curtis Kamman to begin establishing formal diplomatic relations. Bush also said that he had been in contact with Gorbachev in advance of the announcement. While Baltic leaders welcomed Bush's announcement many felt that it came belatedly. Latvian Foreign Minister Janis Jurkans noted that the US step is "a clear cut message to the Congress in Moscow that the Baltic States have to be free, [...] a fact that has to be realized by those hardliners who still think they could reverse the wheel of history." (Dzintra Bungs) BALTIC RECOGNITION UPDATE. According to Western and Baltic media reports of September 3, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have been recognized as independent states by over 40 countries. Most recently, the United States, Venezuela, Belorussia, Kyrgyzstan, and Nicaragua have extended formal he recognition to Baltic States. (Dzintra Bungs) EUROPEAN RECONSTRUCTION BANK ON THE BALTICS. According to a RFE/RL dispatch from London of September 3, Pascal Lorot, a senior economist with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) begins today (September 3) a six-day visit to the Baltic States to assess how the bank can help Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania with economic reforms. Today he is to meet Latvian Finance Minister Janis Aboltins. An EBRD spokesman said that the bank is still treating the Baltic States as part of the USSR, but pointed out that EBRD would welcome Baltic applications for independent membership in the bank. (Dzintra Bungs) ESTONIA MOVES ON NORTHEASTERN AREAS. The Estonian Supreme Council voted on August28 to further strengthen the role of Special Representative Tiit Vahi in his inves tigation of coup support in northeastern Estonia, Rahva Haal reported on August 31. The Supreme Council empowered Vahi--who is Estonia's Minister for Transportation--to establish a special working group comprising representatives from the government, the parliament, the procuracy and the local governments under investigation. The working group is to report its findings to the Supreme Council on September10. (Riina Kionka) ESTONIA NATIONALIZES SOVIET PROPERTY. The Estonian Supreme Council voted on August29 to nationalize USSR property on Estonian soil, Rahva Haal reported on September 1. According to the law, USSR property is defined as that which was appropriated by the Soviet Union on June 16, 1940 and all other enterprises and organizations which were directed by or under the administrative control of USSR state organs. The law also stipulates that the Estonian government must come to an agreement with equipment belonging to or being used by the USSR Defense Ministry and its subordinate components. (Riina Kionka) MORE ON CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBLY. The Committee of Estonia has scheduled the sixth Congress of Estonia session for September 7, Rahva Haal reported on August 31. At the session, the Congress will choose its allotted 30 representatives to the Constitutional Assembly, Paevaleht reported on September 1. The Estonian Supreme Council will choose the other 30 deputies to the Constitutional Assembly. The Assembly is mandated to write a draft of Estonia's new constitution, which will then be submitted to the population for approval. The Estonian government expects to see a draft constitution by November 1, Rahva Haal wrote on August 31. (Riina Kionka) FOREIGN VISITORS CONTINUE. The long stream of foreign visitors coming to Vilnius that began last week in connection with the republic's diplomatic recognition continued on September 2, Radio Independent Lithuania reported that day. Lithuanian Supreme Council Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis accepted credentials from German Ambassador Gottfried Albrecht, received Ireland's Ambassador to Poland Richard O'Brien, who signed documents establishing formal diplomatic relations, met a five-member Japanese Foreign Ministry delegation and Canadian Minister Michael Wilson before flying to Budapest. (Saulius Girnius) VAGNORIUS MEETS SILAEV. On September 2 Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Vagnorius, accompanied by Minister without Portfolio Aleksandras Abisala, met with his RSFSR counterpart Ivan Silaev and his deputy Inga Grebesheva, the RFE Lithuanian Service reported that day. The talks, described as friendly, focused primarily on economic questions. It was decided to prepare an economic agreement for 1992 by the end of September so that it could be signed in October. Both sides agreed that trade should be conducted at world prices with some exceptions, and low tariffs. Shipments of oil to Lithuania will decrease and their price will be doubled. Proportional price increases can also be expected for other natural resources. (Saulius Girnius) HUNGARY SIGNS DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS. On September 2 in Budapest Hungarian Foreign Minister Geza Jeszenszky and his Baltic counterparts, Algirdas Saudargas, Janis Jurkans, and Lennart Meri signed documents restoring diplomatic relations, Western agencies reported that day. Hungary is the first East Europe state to do so. The Baltic ministers also held talks with Prime Minister Jozsef Antall who proposed setting up work groups, surveying the actual state of relations between Hungary and the Baltic states. Trade turnover should be increased since at the present time the Baltic states have only 2% of Hungarian exports to the USSR and less than 1% of imports. (Saulius Girnius) LANDSBERGIS VISITS HUNGARY. On September 2 Lithuanian parliament chairman Vytautas Landsbergis made an official visit to Hungary, receiving several minutes of applause in the Hungarian parliament when he went there with the Baltic Foreign Ministers. Landsbergis had been expected to make the visit in October during the ceremonies celebrating the 1956 revolt as he had done last year. Before the signing of diplomatic relations, he met with Hungarian President Arpad Goncz, Prime Minister Antall, and speaker of the National Assembly Gyorgy Szabad.