RFE/RL DAILY REPORT No. 168 September 4, 1991 USSR--ALL-UNION TOPICS AND RSFSR TODAY AT THE CONGRESS. This morning the USSR People's Deputies were given a draft of a Declaration on Human Rights and Liberties, which is to be approved by the current session of the Congress. Several leading legal experts, including Chairman of the USSR Committee on Constitutional Compliance Sergei Alekseev, want to replace the present outdated USSR Constitution with this Declaration and a few otherbasic documents. The deputies then caucused by republican delegation to discuss the final draft of the proposal of Gorbachev and ten republican leaders on the structure of atransitional Soviet government.(JuliaWishnevsky) GORBACHEV ANNOUNCES THAT SUPREME SOVIET TO BE RETAINED. In his speech to the Congress September 4, Gorbachev said that the signatories of the 10 plus 1 declaration had taken heed of remarks made at the congress and were agreed that instead of replacing the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet by a Council of Representatives, the Supreme Soviet should be retained but in the guise outlined in the latest text of the Union treaty. This means that the Council of Nationalities will be replaced by a Council of Republics, which will become the upper house. Gorbachev repeated that the central question at present was the "question of our statehood;" until this was sorted out no other questions could be solved. (Ann Sheehy) DRAFT LAWS TO BE VOTED ON TODAY. In the closing sessions on September 4 deputies will be asked to vote on a declaration of the rights of individuals, a draft resolution on questions arising from the 10 plus 1 declaration, a draft law on the organs of state power and administration in the transitional period, and on constitution amendments. There is some doubt whether the constitutional amendments, which require a two-thirds majority, will pass. While the Supreme Soviet will be retained (see above), the draft provides for a rotation of half of the members of the Council of the Union. The draft also provides for all deputies of the USSR to retain their status for the whole period for which they were elected. (Ann Sheehy) SILAEV SPEAKS. Addressing the congress yesterday in his capacity of chairman of the Committee for Operational Management of the USSR Economy, RSFSR premier Ivan Silaev called for the rapid creation of an interrepublican economic committee with the participation of all the republics. He said that in the nine days since his committee had been set up representatives of all 15 republics has been working together harmoniously. Silaev also suggested that the framework of an economic union should not be limited to the fifteen Union republics. It should not be ruled out in advance that some of the countries of Eastern Europe might want to join. (Ann Sheehy) YANAEV AND LUK'YANOV SACKED. The Congress voted today to remove Anatolii Luk'yanov from the post of chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet, and Gennadii Yanaev from that of USSR vice-president. (Both men are currently in jail charged with high treason.) Only 20 deputies voted against the removal of Luk'yanov, and only 5 against that of Yanaev. It is not yet clear whether replacement will be nominated, as Aleksandr Yakovlev, one of the favorites, has said that the Soviet Union does not need a vice-president at the moment. (Julia Wishnevsky) MEDVEDEV DEFENDS COMMUNIST PARTY. During the second day of the Congress of People's Deputies (September 3), well-known dissident historian Roy Medvedev criticized the recent actions taken against the Communist Party and said he hoped the party would never decide to dissolve itself. In a challenge to Gorbachev, Yeltsin and liberal politicians, he questioned the kind of democracy being built in the USSR. Medvedev called on deputies to "let the Communists work in peace, and don't overstep the bounds of legality and the Constitution. Don't let tanks or some other kind of internal forces of Russia decide all the questions of political discourse and development." (Carla Thorson) CPSU PERSISTS IN PUSHING ZHIRINOVSKY. On each day of the session, deputies have discussed the presence at the Congress of the leaders of two "mock-opposition parties" Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Vladimir Voronin. The two were invited by the Supreme Soviet apparatus at the request of Boris Oleinik, deputy head of the Soviet of Nationalities, despite an earlier decision not to invite such politicians. Zhirinovsky's "Liberal Democratic Party" was banned by Yeltsin as the only political party to have publicly supported the coup, but the party continues to exist officially. Both the LDP and Voronin's "Andrei Sakharov Movement" are believed to have been set up by the CPSU to discredit real opposition parties. (Julia Wishnevsky) DEPUTIES' OPINIONS POLLED. The Institute of the Sociology of Parliamentarism has released the results of its poll of 994 USSR People's Deputies. TASS reported September 3 that 46% of the respondents envision the USSR as a federation, 27% as a confederation, and 15% as "severalindependent states." 66% consider Boris Yeltsin the country's true leader, 48% think Anatolii Sobchak is (38% also think of him as the chairman of the Supreme Soviet), and 41.3% think Gorbachev is the nation's leader. (Nursultan Nazarbaev was namedby 37%, Ivan Silaev by 22%, and Eduard Shevardnadze by 12%.) The most popular candidate for USSR vice president is Aleksandr Yakovlev, with 19%; the most popular candidate for USSR Prime Minister is Ivan Silaev, with 22%. (Dawn Mann) PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP FOR DEPUTIES. An office for psychological consultations has been set up in the foyer of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, where people's deputies who are suffering from stress can talk to a trained psychologist, TASS reported September 3. Deputies are reportedly suffering from feelings of inadequacy brought on by their behavior during the putsch, or from feelings of isolation and disorientation in the new political climate, or from stage fright at the thought of having to speak at the Congress. Many former Party workers among the deputies are also visiting the office. (Dawn Mann) ZHIRINOVSKY CONFIDENT OF VICTORY. The chairman of the USSR Liberal-Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovksy, who has already declared his intent to run for the post of USSR president, told TASS on September 3 that he is confident of victory. Should he win, Zhirinovsky intends to establish a new State Committee for the State of Emergency, introduce a nationwide state of emergency, close all newspapers, and disband all political parties. (Dawn Mann) FOUR MINISTERS REHABILITATED. On August29, Ivan Silaev reinstated four USSR ministers who had not supported the coup, according to the August 31 issue of Komsomol'skaya pravda. They are Nikolai Vorontsov (environment), Nikolai Gubenko (culture), Salambek Khadzhiev (chemical industry), and Gennadii Yagodin (education). Earlier last week, the USSR Supreme Soviet voted no confidence in the USSR Cabinet of Ministers for its failure to oppose the junta. (Julia Wishnevsky) KGB PRISON STAFF AGAINST COUP! Literaturnaya gazeta No. 28 interviewed Valeriya Novodvorskaya, leader of the anti-Communist Democratic Union and one of Gorbachev's harshest critics. At time of the coup, Novodvorskaya was incarcerated in the KGB's Lefortovo prison charged with calling for the violent overthrow of the Gorbachev regime. She immediately demanded to be released on the grounds that the coup organizers, now in power, had achieved precisely that. She launched a campaign in Gorbachev's defense, since he was a political prisoner. Her jailers disapproved of the coup and described Kryuchkov and his crew as "senile reptiles." Novodvorskaya said that many KGB employees want to see the KGB transformed into a service on the Western model. She was released after the coup collapsed "because of the change in the political situation." (Julia Wishnevsky) YELTSIN ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Moving quickly to carve out a role in security policy, Boris Yeltsin on September 3 called for a moratorium on underground nuclear weapons tests and for the "total elimination of nuclear weapons in Russia." Yeltsin's comments, made during an interview on CNN, were reported by The Los Angeles Times on September 4. He also said that nuclear weapons were now being moved to Russia from Ukraine and Kazakhstan and that the RSFSR would demand "a finger on the button" controlling nuclear weapons. Yeltsin added that the recent START treaty had not gone far enough, but he cautioned that nuclear weapons reductions had to be conducted on the basis of parity. (Stephen Foye) NEW AIR DEFENSE CHIEF INTERVIEWED. Colonel General Viktor Prudnikov told TASS on September 3 that the Air Defense Forces as a whole had in no way supported the Emergency Committee during the recent coup. He nevertheless implied significant complicity among top PVO commanders when he admitted that the PVO's Military Council would have to be restructured as a result of the putsch. The PVO Commander-in-Chief also criticized Soviet defense industries for supplying the forces with poor quality goods, and said that the removal of Communist Party bodies from the armed forces would not be a destabilizing factor. (StephenFoye) AKHROMEEV'S GRAVE VANDALIZED. "Vesti" reported on September 3 that vandals dug up the corpse of the recently buried Marshal Sergei Akhromeev and stripped it of its military uniform. Akhromeev committed suicide after the failed coup. According to the report, the corpse of a Col. Gen. Sredin, buried nearby, was treated in a similar fashion. "Vesti" did not say when the vandals had struck or give any further details. (Stephen Foye) MAKASHOV DISMISSED? "Vesti" reported on September 3 that the newspaper Ural'skii rabochii has announced the dismissal of Colonel General Albert Makashov as Commander of the Volga-Ural Military District. Makashov is a notorious conservative whose connection to the recent coup remains unclear. The reported dismissal has not been confirmed. Radio Moscow (M-1), meanwhile, reported on the same day that the Volga-Ural Military District had just completed disbanding more than one hundred large Communist Party organizations. Some thirty thousand Communists have reportedly been effected. (Stephen Foye) ENVIRONMENT MINISTER WANTS DEFENSE SPENDING CUT. Soviet Environment MinisterNikolai Vorontsov said in Geneva on September 3 that Soviet military spending should be cut in order to release funds for cleaning up the environment, Western agencies reported. (Stephen Foye) PANKIN ON RECALLS. Foreign Minister Boris Pankin said in an interview with Central Soviet TV on September 3 that four ambassadors have been recalled to investigate their reactions to the coup. They are Leonid Zamyatin (Great Britain), Aleksandr P. Baryshev (Guinea-Bissau), German Gventsadze (Ireland), and Vadim Loginov (Yugoslavia). (Suzanne Crow) MORE POSSIBLE. Interfax reported September3 that Yurii Dubinin (France) and Nikolai Uspensky (Sweden) may also be facing consultations, but there has been no official confirmation on this. MFA officials said that charges against top diplomats are being studied within the MFA by a specially appointed commission, the Main Personnel Directorate (whose new director was named September 2) and the Department for Contacts with the Soviet Embassies. (Suzanne Crow) BESSMERTNYKH'S INTERVIEW ON COUP . . . In a interview with Moscow TV broadcast September2, former Foreign Minister Aleksandr Bessmertnykh said that he did not resign at the start of the coup for fear that hardliners would take over foreign policy. He said that he had instructed diplomats abroad not to carry out instructions of the coup leaders. Speaking of the meeting he attended on August 18 with coup leaders, Bessmertnykh said he uttered only two remarks at the meeting: he refused to join the junta and warned them that their actions would be met with international sanctions. He also predicted that should blood be shed in the Baltics, "the whole world will simply explode." (Suzanne Crow) AND AFFAIRS IN GENERAL. Asked about the degree of influence the KGB has on Soviet diplomatic missions abroad, Bessmertnykh said that "in general the KGB resident cannot make the ambassador go anywhere. The ambassador is,andremains the leading figure in the embassy. Although . . . the role of the KGB representative is imposing . . . simply through the nature of this department." On the role of the CPSU apparatus in Soviet missions abroad, Bessmertnykh said "it did not touch us." He stressed, of course, that the CPSU played a great policy role in Moscow. (Suzanne Crow) USSR--OTHER REPUBLICS UKRAINIAN SUPREME SOVIET SESSION. The Fourth Session of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet opened yesterday, Radio Kiev reported. The session began with a statement from Stepan Khmara saying that he disagreed with the wording of the decision of the Presidium that amnestied him and others arrested last November. He also said that he would not participate in the work of the Supreme Soviet until the decision lifting his immunity is annulled. The session heard a report of the parliamentary commission investigating the activities of public figures during the failed coup. The commission, according to the report, has documentation showing that the leadership of the Communist Party of Ukraine supported the coup. (Roman Solchanyk) UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTER NAMED. According to Western agency reports, the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet on September 3 appointed a republican Defense Minister. He was identified as Major General Konstantin Morozov, who had been serving as commander of a large Air Force unit in Ukraine. Ukraine's first Defense Minister, Morozov was voted in with only three dissenting votes (out of nearly 300), and reportedly spoke later to the delegates in both Ukrainian and then in Russian. Morozov said he supported the idea of a Ukrainian army. He also said that the Ukrainian Defense Minister should be a civilian and offered to resign from the USSR Armed Forces. (Stephen Foye) MORE DEMONSTRATIONS IN TBILISI. Speaking on Soviet television September 3, Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia claimed that demonstrators had attacked police in Tbilisi on September 2; National Democratic Party spokeswoman Irina Sarishvili told RFE/RL that OMON troops had been deployed to suppress the demonstration. Some 5,000 people demonstrated in Tbilisi again on September 3 to call for Gamsakhurdia's resignation; security forces did not intervene. The National Democratic Party has called a general hunger-strike, according to Interfax of September 3. Soviet television reported September 3 that warrants have been issued for the arrest of three opposition political figures. (Liz Fuller) AZERBAIJAN STRIKE SITUATION UNCLEAR. Western news agencies quoted Azerbaijani journalists September 3 as claiming that workers in the republic had ignored a strike call by the Azerbaijan Popular Front to support demands for the postponement of the presidential elections scheduled for September 8. Interfax however quoted a Popular Front spokesman who said that workers at more than 70 enterprises in Baku, Nakhichevan, Agdam and Akstafa were striking. (Liz Fuller) SELF-PROCLAIMED GAGAUZ REPUBLIC DECLARES INDEPENDENCE. The supreme soviet of the self-proclaimed Gagauz republic declared September 1 that it was seceding from Moldavia but would remain a republic within the USSR, according to a Moldavapres report. The supreme soviet appealed to the USSR Congress of People's Deputies and the United Nations to send a commission to investigate allegations of ethnic rights abuses in Moldavia. The Gagauz action was taken in the absence of the Gagauz republic's president and vice-president who are in the custody of the Moldavian authorities for having sent messages of support to the leader's of last month's anti-Gorbachev coup. (Vlad Socor) TALKS BETWEEN MOLDAVIA AND DNIESTER SEPARATISTS PROGRESS. Dniester separatists agreed September 3 not to cut off electricity and gas supplies to Moldavia and pledged to try to endblockades of rail lines in the Dniester region, Western agencies reported September 3. The separatists have been demanding the release of the self-proclaimed Dniester republic's president Igor Smirnov, detained by the Moldavian authorities on a charge of having supported the recent coup. Dniester representatives are to visit Smirnov in prison, and Moldavian security chief said Smirnov could be released if he agreed to cooperate with the Moldavian-led investigation of the coup supporters. (Ann Sheehy) MOLDAVIA TAKES COMMAND OF SOVIET BORDER GUARDS. Moldavia decided September3 to take control of its border with Romania and to assume command over Soviet frontier troops on its territory, TASS reported September 3. President Mircea issued a decree saying the republic, which is separated from the rest of the Soviet Union by Ukraine, has no common border with the USSR. (Ann Sheehy) BALTIC STATES BALTICS REQUEST UN ADMISSION. On September 3 the French and British Ambassadors at the UN Jean-Bernard Merimee and Sir David Hannay transmitted letters to UN Secretary-General Javiet Perez de Cuellar from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania asking for admission into the world body, a RFE/RL correspondent reported that day. The letters had been given to French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas during his visits the previous week to the Baltic capitals. The applications have to be approved by the 15-member Security Council and two-thirds of the 159 member nations at the next session that will begin on September 17. (Saulius Girnius) FOREIGN VISITS CONTINUE. On September 4 at 10:00 a.m. a British delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Douglas Hogg met with Chairman of the Lithuanian Supreme Council Vytautas Landsbergis, Radio Independent Lithuania reported that day. Later that day President of the French National Assembly Laurent Fabius is expected to arrive in Vilnius for a meeting with Landsbergis and a press conference. The trip will be very short; Fabius will return to Paris after two hours. (Saulius Girnius) ESTONIA'S PLAN: 3 X 3. The Estonian Government has come with a graduated plan to overcome the most significant obstacles it faces in the immediate future, according to Rahva Haal on September 3. The plan establishes specific goals, and means for achieving them, for the next three weeks, months and years. The goals, which range from accelerating domestic economic reform through setting up relations with the West, cover most areas of economic and political concern. The government and some outside advisors hammered out the plan at a workshop held outside Tallinn last week. (Riina Kionka) LATVIA'S LOSSES FROM THE COUP. A Baltic News Services dispatch of August 30 notes that during the three days when coup supporters tried to carry out the orders of the USSR State of Emergency Committee, Latvia suffered damages estimated at 2.5 million rubles. Heavy damage was done to the Latvian TV and Radio Buildings, which were occupied by the Soviet forces; the material losses amounted to about 150,000 rubles. Facilities under the auspices of the ministries of Communication, Industry, Internal Affairs, Culture, and the Public Security Department submitted reports accounting for the remaining sum. This information was published in a recent issue of Sovetskaya Molodezh. (Dzintra Bungs) SOVIET MILITARY TO LOSE DEPUTY STATUS IN LATVIA. The Latvian Supreme Council decided on August 29 to abolish the electoral constituencies at Soviet military bases in Latvia and recall the mandates of those deputies elected from these constituencies, reported Radio Riga that day. The decision states that the status of a People's Deputy in Latvia is incompatible with service in the USSR armed forces. Deputies from the military who were elected from a civilian electorate are obliged to hand in their resignations to the USSR Ministry of Defense by September 15; the authority of those deputies who do not comply with this resolution will be revoked. (Dzintra Bungs) LATVIA TAKES CONTROL OF ITS BANKING. On September 3 the Latvian Supreme Council adopted a decision to reorganize the banking system in Latvia and to take over those banking institutions heretofore under USSR jurisdiction. The new president of the Bank of the Republic of Latvia is Einars Repse. Alfreds Bergs-Bergmanis, a man of many years of experience in the Latvian SSR banking system, was appointed vice president, according to Radio Riga of September3. (Dzintra Bungs) REPORTERS SEE KGB HEADQUARTERS IN LATVIA. On September 3 Western journalists saw offices, and squalid interrogation and isolation cells of the KGB headquarters in Latvia. They were not allowed to see the two upper floors. KGB chief Edmunds Johansons said that he had ordered the destruction of classified documents after the Latvian Supreme Council decided to the eliminate the Latvian SSR KGB. It is not clear what was destroyed, noted the agency dispatches that day. (Dzintra Bungs)