Baltic Nations Will Remain Part of Soviet Union, Gerasimov Insists
Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov said Sunday that Moscow’s doctrine of letting nations chart their own futures stops at the Soviet border and that the Baltic republics are to remain part of the Soviet Union.
But Gerasimov, interviewed on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said force will not be used put down independence movements.
Gerasimov said the Soviet Union wants to persuade the restive Baltics that changes being made in Moscow will give them independence that they did not have in the past.
He said that under the reformed Soviet system, “they will have real economic independence and a lot of political independence, but still it will be the union.”
He said that if the Baltics can’t be persuaded, “we’ll see what’s going to happen. But, of course, we are not going to use force.”
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