Gorbachev Urges Probe of Shootings

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev today rejected allegations that the military crackdown in the Baltic republics meant he was exerting dictatorial powers and said recent shootings there should be investigated.

A tired-looking Gorbachev made his statement at a news conference two days after four people died in a military assault in Latvia and nine days after 14 people died when the military stormed a television station in Lithuania.

He said the attacks on civilians in the Baltic republics resulted from unconstitutional activities “and not because of any mythical commands from above.”

His statement was worded ambiguously, however. It appeared to apply both to the separatist Baltic parliaments, which he said have passed unconstitutional independence declarations, and to the shadowy National Salvation Committees, which have ordered military actions against the separatist governments of Latvia and Lithuania.

The attacks have been carried out by elite Soviet commandos called “black berets.”

Said Gorbachev, “Neither the internal nor the external policy has changed.”

Referring to the bloodshed in the Baltics, he offered “condolences to the families and all those touched by this calamity.”

“It would be too bad if everything the Soviet leadership has achieved in five years would be put in jeopardy,” said Gorbachev, who came to power in March, 1985.

Although aides had said earlier he might answer questions, at the end of the brief statement he removed his glasses, looked down and walked off the stage. He left by a side entrance reserved for VIPs.

The address lasted seven minutes, with Gorbachev reading from a prepared paper, in contrast to his normal practice of departing from advance texts.

The session appeared designed to curb speculation in the Soviet and Western media that the Soviet troop attacks in the Baltics meant Gorbachev was turning the country toward dictatorship.

“The events in Lithuania and Latvia in no way express the line of presidential rule. And I resolutely reject expressions on this score,” he said.

“Any social organizations, committees or fronts can fight for power only through constitutional channels,” he said, alluding to the committees that requested military action.

Gorbachev said any appeals to the military are impermissible and insisted that the republics follow the Soviet constitution.