Soviets Accuse Voice of America of Inciting Baltic Area Unrest

The Soviet Union lodged a formal diplomatic protest on Monday with the U.S. Embassy, accusing the government-run Voice of America radio network of inciting public unrest in broadcasts to the Soviet Baltic republics of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

The news agency Tass charged that the Voice of America, which broadcasts in Russian and in regional Baltic languages, is guilty of “flagrant interference” in the domestic affairs of the three republics and has effectively taken hostile action against their governments through its programming.

A U.S. Embassy official refused to comment on the Tass report, saying the U.S. response to the protest was confidential and delivered through diplomatic channels to Soviet authorities.

Nationalists in Lithuania and Estonia recently held unauthorized public demonstrations to mark the 70th anniversaries of the beginning of their homelands’ brief periods of independence.

The Soviet Union annexed the two republics, along with Latvia, in 1940 after signing a secret treaty with Nazi Germany. The United States does not recognize the annexations and considers exile groups as legitimate governments-in-exile.

There were also nationalist rallies in Latvia last summer. And in another part of the Soviet Union, Tass on Monday reported a weekend outbreak of “rampage and violence” in the Azerbaijan republic after more than two weeks of nationalist demonstrations in neighboring Armenia.

Tass accused the Voice of America of encouraging the Baltic demonstrations.

“Among other things, these broadcasts have been crudely distorting historical facts, making provocative insinuations about the growth of nationalist sentiment in the Baltic republics of the Soviet Union and expressing U.S. support for forces that do not accept the social system in the country,” Tass said.

The Soviets claim that the Voice of America broadcasts provide demonstrators the time and gathering place for demonstrations, along with other information.

The Soviet Union stopped jamming the U.S. radio network’s broadcasts last May, five months after it began to permit the free transmission of the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Russian-language programs.