Soviets Unexpectedly Clamp Down at Poland-Lithuania Crossing Point

The Soviet Union unexpectedly limited crossing at its border checkpoint between Poland and rebellious Lithuania today, curtailing travel of thousands of Poles across what was known as the “bridge of friendship,” Polish border guards said.

Soviet authorities suspended most border crossings in Ogrodniki, the single crossing point from Poland into Lithuania, at 9 a.m., border guard spokesman Col. Vaclaw Kwiatkowski said.

Polish guards said Soviet authorities were only allowing Poles with visas and some transport trucks to pass through the checkpoint. They said usually about 3,000 Poles a day crossed through the Ogrodniki checkpoint without visas.

“People know it is not our decision but a unilateral decision on the part of the Soviet Union,” said one Polish guard who asked not to be named. He said he had seen Soviet officials stop a tour bus and make Poles without visas get off before allowing the bus into Lithuania.

Polish government spokeswoman Malgorzata Niezabitowska said, “We deplore the decision” and added that Foreign Minister Krzystof Skubiszewski was preparing a response to the Soviet action.

Poland has been one of the most vocal supporters of Lithuania’s drive for independence from the Soviet Union, with Polish leaders chastising other countries for their cautious stance toward the Soviet republic and hinting Poland may be the first to officially recognize an independent Lithuania.

The Soviet order apparently only affects the approximately 45-mile-long border between Lithuania and Poland. Other checkpoints between the Soviet Union and Poland remained open, Kwiatkowski said.

Meanwhile, a group of Lithuanian officials met in Moscow today with a leading aide to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, heralding a bid to ease the tense stalemate between Moscow and the breakaway Baltic republic.

Also today, a Soviet bill on secession cleared one house of Parliament after heated debate.

Egidis Bickauskas, a Lithuanian legislator, told a Moscow news conference that three representatives, including Lithuanian Deputy Premier Romualdas Ozolas, met with Alexander N. Yakovlev, considered to be one of Gorbachev’s top advisers.

“If there are people who are ready to listen, I think it is very good,” Bickauskas said.

The meeting signified the first high-level personal contact between Lithuania and Moscow since just after the Baltic republic declared independence on March 11.

The secession bill was approved by the Soviet of Nationalities, one of two houses of the Parliament, said the official Soviet news agency Tass, without giving a vote count. It was sent on to the second chamber, the Soviet of the Union.

Some deputies to the Supreme Soviet legislature found the bill too harsh, while others thought the conditions it set were too lenient, Tass said.

An amendment approved by the Soviet of Nationalities requires any republic leaving the union to pay the costs of citizens who want to resettle back in the Soviet Union. Lithuania has a large Russian minority.