President Mikhail Gorbachev vowed in an interview he would not resign and gave his strongest indication yet that the Baltic republics would be recognized as independent states by the Soviet Union.
In an interview Sunday with Cable News Network on the eve of perhaps the most important speech of his life to the Congress of People's Deputies Monday, Gorbachev said he would resign only if the Soviet Union were dissolved.Gorbachev also pledged to continue to work with Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin, whose resistance thwarted last month's three-day military-backed coup and salvaged Gorbachev.
"I have said that I will not now resign," Gorbachev said. "This would be an immoral act.
"Without mentioning some other aspects, I think that at this very difficult stage when we are approaching very important decisions that will define the future of the country, the course that we began in 1985, I will not permit myself, as a citizen, I cannot permit myself, to just leave."
When reminded by his interviewers that he had several times said he would quit if his plans for keeping the Soviet Union together were not approved, Gorbachev stipulated the sine qua non for his staying in office.
"There is one condition," he said. "The union should be preserved."
When he was pressed by CNN bureau chief Steve Hurst over Baltic independence, Gorbachev gave his strongest indication yet that Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia would get independence.
Hurst asked whether President Bush's recognition of the Baltic states Monday would be taken as "a fait accompli" by the Congress of People's Deputies for Baltic independence.
"This is consistent with my approach about the development of the situation, because every nation, every republic can take advantage of its constitutional right to self-determination," Gorbachev said.
"Therefore, if this is the final will, the definitive will and intention of the people of those republics, then I am sure we must take that into account and approve it," he said.
In the most personal moment of the interview, Gorbachev spoke of the fears that caused his wife, Raisa, to suffer a heart attack when news was broadcast that the failed putschists were on their way to the Crimea Aug. 21.
"When the BBC first communicated that the group of conspirators was on their way to the Crimea to perhaps show Gorbachev to the Soviet people, to the international public, we were worried about their intentions, maybe they had something very treacherous on their minds," Gorbachev said.
"As a result she had a very bad attack, she had a very bad heart attack, with some very bad consequences, and the doctor who saved her says now she is recuperating," he said.
Asked whether he now was sharing power with Yeltsin, Gorbachev said they were now working together.
"If anyone expects that he will drive a wedge between Gorbachev and Yeltsin (we will not allow ourselves to be provoked)," he said.