Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev agreed Wednesday to grant independence to the Baltic republics, making them the first breakaway Soviet states to win such recognition from the Kremlin.
Also Wednesday the Soviet parliament gave preliminary approval to a sweeping plan to transfer most central power to the republics and transform the Soviet Union into a loose confederation of sovereign states.Kremlin authority has been crumbling fast in the wake of last month's hard-line coup. Two-thirds of the Soviet republics have declared independence.
Gorbachev had been expected to raise the issue of Baltic independence at the Congress of People's Deputies but did
not because it apparently lacked sufficient support.
The Congress adjourned for the night after voting overwhelmingly to approve a resolution on the power-transferring plan as a basis for discussion.
Delegations from each republic were to work on the drafts and submit proposals Wednesday evening to an editorial commission, which was to work through the night to consider the various proposals. Lawmakers were to reconvene Thursday morning to consider them.
After a day in which the Congress twice was recessed for a total of six hours so that last-minute amendments could be hammered into his proposal, Gorbachev faced off with testy law-makers.
He had to prod the reluctant Congress into giving preliminary approval to his plans to transfer most Kremlin power to the republics and transform the Soviet Union into a loose confederation of sovereign states.
Lawmakers repeatedly demanded that they be allowed to speak from the floor of the Congress, but Gorbachev limited discussion on the sweeping measures to 30 minutes.
"You're insulting us!" deputies shouted.
"If you behave like that, it won't make our work any easier," Gorbachev snapped back.
The deputies, fearing the proposals would mean the dissolution of the Congress and the elimination of their jobs, passed the measure 1,126-289 only "as a basis for discussion," which means that amendments to the resolution can still be made.
Gorbachev then failed to win a subsequent vote to accept for discussion a draft law on the measures. That motion received a majority, 1,200-275, but failed to win the two-thirds approval from the 2,250-member body that apparently was necessary.
Gorbachev did not announce before the vote was taken that a two-thirds majority was necessary, nor after the vote that it had failed.
An electronic tally board flashed the words, "Motion Not Adopted." But an insistent Gorbachev, unwilling to concede defeat, tried to convince the lawmakers that a two-thirds margin was not necessary.
"We are not adopting the law. We are only adopting it as a basis for discussion," he said. But a chorus of shouts erupted from the floor.
"All right, all right," Gorbachev said. "The law is still up in the air."
After the votes, some deputies emerged unsure of what they had voted on and what it meant.
"It's very hard for us to vote on this law. We've gotten used to this big country, and now we're supposed to vote so that there'll be a lot of separate countries," said Alexander Belogolov, a deputy from the Russian city of Chita.
The two votes were important procedural tests of support for the proposal by Gorbachev and leaders of 10 of the 15 republics to turn over most of the central government's remaining power to the republics and create an interim government during the transition to the new confederation.
The plan also urges all republics, regardless of their political ties to the Kremlin, to participate in an economic agreement.
Word of Gorbachev's agreement to grant Baltic independence came after he met with Baltic representatives from the Congress. He asked them to draft a declaration, said Algimantas Cekuolis, a former Lithuanian deputy who is attending the Congress.
Former Gorbachev aide Alexander Yakovlev also said Gorbachev would issue the decrees after lawmakers conclude a special session.
The Baltics, which began their independence drive three years ago, have already won recognition from dozens of foreign governments, including the United States. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia also have applied for U.N. membership, and Moscow has indicated it won't block the move.
Most Western nations never recognized the Baltics' forcible annexation by the Soviet Union more than 50 years ago.
In other developments:
- The Congress voted to dismiss ousted Supreme Soviet Chairman Anatoly Lukyanov and Vice President Gennady Yanayev from their posts for their role in last month's failed coup. The vote was a formality, affirming decisions made earlier at the Supreme Soviet, the smaller standing legislature that is elected by the Congress.
Lukyanov and Yanayev were arrested for their roles in the Aug. 18-21 coup that briefly toppled Gorbachev. Yanayev has been charged with high treason. Lukyanov has not yet been charged.
- The Communist Youth League will meet Sept. 27 to consider disbanding itself, the Tass news agency reported Wednesday. For decades the League, known as Komsomol, has been the Communist Party's main organ for recruiting and training young people. Its demise would be one of the clearest signals yet that communism has no future in the Soviet Union.
- Japanese newspapers reported Thursday that several thousand Soviet Communist Party members and KGB officers have defected to northern China since the failed Soviet coup last month.