Soviet Troops Shoot at Cars, Lithuania Says

Lithuanian officials said Thursday that Soviet troops accompanying a column of armored cars opened fire on two vehicles outside Vilnius, wounding one person and later arresting another.

Ceslavus Stankavicus, a deputy to Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis, told a news conference the Soviet soldiers were apparently annoyed by a police car and government vehicle following their armored cars on the main road from Vilnius to the republic’s second city, Kaunas.

Stankavicus said he did not yet know how serious the victim’s wounds were. No other details were available.

Earlier in the day, Landsbergis had accused Soviet troops of kidnaping two draft-age students, and condemned the military occupation of two buildings on Wednesday.

Lithuanian officials said they contacted Georgy Tarazevich, the personal representative of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, about Thursday’s shooting.

Meanwhile, economic and political pressure on the Soviets continued in the wake of the Baltic crackdown.

The U.S. Senate passed the latest in a series of resolutions on the issue Thursday, calling on President Bush to review all economic benefits provided to the Soviet Union and report to Congress on whether they should be suspended.

In London, British Prime Minister John Major said Thursday he would consider suspending all assistance except food aid to the Soviet Union if violence against independence activists in the Baltic republics continued.

And the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, following the lead of the Group of Seven Industrial Countries, has put on hold any economic discussions with the Soviet Union, officials and monetary sources said Thursday.

Meanwhile, a parliamentary deputy in Czechoslovakia told the CTK news agency there that 14 armed Soviets were killed trying to cross the border into his country.

“Some 50 armed people attempted to cross the border,” deputy Peter Kulan said.

Kulan gave no details on when or how the deaths occurred.

Martin Fendrych, the Czechoslovak Interior Ministry spokesman, said he had no official information on the shootings. There were unconfirmed reports of a similar incident on the Soviet-Hungarian border last month.