WORLD IN BRIEF : SOVIET UNION : Kazakh Republic Joins Breakaways

The Kazakh republic declared its sovereignty from the Soviet Union. As its first act of defiance, the Kazakh legislature banned nuclear explosions anywhere in the republic, including Semipalatinsk, one of the Soviet Union’s main sites for testing warheads. Kazakhstan, a poor, grain-growing republic that stretches from the Caspian Sea to the Chinese border, is the 14th of the 15 Soviet republics to declare sovereignty from Moscow. Meanwhile, the republic of Moldavia is having breakaway troubles of its own: The Gagauzi, a Turkic people who make up just 3.5% of Moldavia’s population of 4.2 million, want to establish their own republic.