WORLD : Lithuanian Independence Ballot
The parliament in the Soviet Baltic republic of Lithuania passed laws today allowing for a referendum on independence from the Soviet Union and establishing separate Lithuanian citizenship.
The laws passed by the Supreme Soviet assembly are the latest step within Lithuania and its sister Baltic republics of Estonia and Latvia to distance themselves from Moscow.
All three were independent states between 1918 and 1940, when they were incorporated into the Soviet Union as part of a Soviet-Nazi pact carving up influence in Eastern Europe.
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