CRISIS IN THE KREMLIN : Critical Soviet Issues Back on Table

The takeover of the Soviet government by hard-liners on Monday had threatened to jeopardize several major initiatives in which Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had played a key part. Here is a list of those plans, which now are expected to be revived:

MIDEAST PEACE TALKS: Gorbachev and President Bush had jointly called for a Middle East conference for October in hopes of persuading Israel and its Arab neighbors to sit down and negotiate a peace settlement. Gorbachev’s support was a major reason that once-intransigent countries such as Syria had agreed to take part in the talks. U.S. officials had feared that the whole effort might collapse if Gorbachev had been unseated.

THE UNION TREATY: Gorbachev had been preparing to sign (on Tuesday) the new Union Treaty that would transform the country into a new Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics, a federation in which member republics--and the Soviet people--would have far greater powers in choosing legislators, collecting taxes and carrying on commercial relations with other countries. Most analysts believe the hard-liners’ fear of such a pact was a major factor in their decision to engineer the coup. Gorbachev is expected to go ahead with the plan soon.

THE BALTICS: Gorbachev had been moving, albeit slowly, to grant more autonomy to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, the three Baltic republics that the Soviet Union annexed at the start of World War II--another of his basic policies that alarmed old-line Communists. One of the first steps that the three-day coup leadership did was to send troops into the Baltic countries. The move toward increased autonomy is now expected to be resumed.

THE SOVIET ECONOMY: Gorbachev had been planning--admittedly slowly--new steps to move his country toward a market-oriented economic system, but the coup this week interrupted that. Those efforts are likely to continue now, possibly at a faster pace. The United States and other Western governments, which held up promised aid when it appeared that the coup might succeed, are expected to resume their help and may even increase it somewhat.

TREATIES WITH THE UNITED STATES: Gorbachev had signed several major treaties with the United States and other Western powers, which were thrown into doubt when the coup was announced, among them the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe and a bilateral executive agreement on the elimination of chemical weapons stockpiles. Bush also had asked that Moscow be granted most-favored-nation trade status, and he approved $1.5 billion in farm credits for Soviet purchases of U.S. grain. All these are now expected to continue intact.