Lithuanian Panel to Study Taking Another Step Away From Moscow
Lithuania has taken another step toward breaking away from the Soviet Union by setting up a commission to study how to restore its statehood, local journalists said Friday.
The “Parliamentary Commission to Achieve Lithuanian Independence” was formed at a meeting of the republic’s Parliament on Thursday, the journalists said by telephone from Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.
The move defied Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who has said that secession by republics, although permitted by the Soviet constitution, is politically out of the question.
“There is no doubt in Lithuania about independence as a goal,” a correspondent with Radio Vilnius said. “The question is how to achieve it.”
The commission was charged with preparing a parliamentary program to determine how best to restore the independent statehood Lithuania enjoyed from 1918 to 1940.
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