Soviets Slash Natural Gas to Lithuania : Independence: Cutoff leaves the country with only 16% of the fuel it needs. The reduction is seen as punishment for asserting its sovereignty.

The Kremlin sharply curtailed supplies of natural gas to Lithuania today, hours after it halted the flow of crude oil to the republic for refusing to scrap laws promoting independence, Lithuanian officials said.

Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis said Moscow’s economic embargo is tantamount to it recognizing his Baltic republic’s independence.

A Soviet energy official, however, said the Lithuanians got what they deserved for defying President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who on Friday threatened to cut off supplies unless they rescinded their independence-oriented laws.

A Lithuanian government spokesman appealed over Vilnius Radio today for fuel conservation, “and maybe we will not be intimidated by these sanctions.”

The flow of natural gas to Lithuania was shut off in three pipelines--two from Latvia and one from Minsk in Byelorussia--reducing supplies to Lithuania by more than 80%, Lithuanian lawmakers said.

A fourth pipeline from Slonim in Byelorussia that supplies Lithuania continued to provide 3.5 million cubic meters of gas to the republic, guaranteeing “a normal supply of gas for residents and communal domestic use,” parliamentary officials quoted the Byelorussian gas concern’s telegram as saying.

That leaves Lithuania with only 16% of the gas it needs per day.

Juozas Martusevicius, a Lithuanian electrical official, said Moscow officials guaranteed that enough natural gas would be supplied to keep Lithuania’s Elektrenai power plant functioning. The plant also serves customers in the neighboring Russian republic territory of Kaliningrad.

As the events in Lithuania unfolded, Gorbachev met in the Kremlin today with leaders of Latvia and Estonia and offered concessions and made threats in an effort to keep them in the Soviet Union, participants said.

Gorbachev offered both republics “special status” in the Soviet Union if they drop their attempts to follow Lithuania into independence, said Raymond Lochmelis of the Latvian Popular Front and other officials present.