The Baltic republics are rejoicing over Mikhail Gorbachev's promise of independence, and Lithuania's president looked forward Monday to benefits of U.S. recognition.
"I am sure it will mean the end of, and the greatest possible protection against, any possible new aggression," Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis said. In the past, Soviet authorities have sought to halt Lithuania's independence drive with military attacks.A Lithuanian official said Lithuania would like to start talks with the United States on economic aid and other issues.
"We don't want the United States to see Lithuania only as a state that needs support," Parliament member Romualdas Ozolas said Sunday. "We would like a partnership relationship."
The secession drive by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia was on the agenda of the Congress of People's Deputies, the highest representative governing body in the Soviet Union, which met Monday in the Kremlin.
On Sunday, Gorbachev virtually gave the green light, saying in a TV interview that if the Baltics insist on seceding, "then I think we must agree to it." (See interview on A2.)
Lithuanians held a victory rally in a Vilnius park to mark the withdrawal of the elite "black berets," a Soviet Interior Ministry commando unit that spread terror in the Baltics with a January crackdown.
Gorbachev did not say whether he would drop his demand that the Baltics follow a constitutional procedure to break away from the Soviet Union, which forcibly annexed them 50 years ago.
Baltic leaders hailed his remarks, despite the ambiguity.
"This is the beginning of a new period in history," Landsbergis said at the victory rally. "Now there must be concrete talks on the withdrawal of Soviet troops."
Apart from the black beret troops, more than 100,000 Soviet troops are posted in the Baltics, the most Western-looking part of the Soviet Union.
"This is obviously a step in the right direction," Estonian Foreign Minister Lennhart Meri said in a statement released in his capital, Tallinn.
"Nevertheless, Mr. Gorbachev has no right to give independence. He can merely recognize our independence, or recognize the fact that we were occupied," Meri said.