Former Soviet Forces Begin Baltic Pullout

A modest convoy of 36 army trucks rumbled out of Lithuania on Tuesday, officially launching the withdrawal of former Soviet forces from the Baltic nations.

In the Baltics--in contrast to the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, where combatants want forces from the Commonwealth of Independent States to stay--residents are insisting that commanders move faster in withdrawing the estimated 180,000 troops that helped keep the region under Soviet domination for more than 50 years.

The puny convoy and the 103 men that left Lithuania on Tuesday were behind schedule; as a harbinger of a future, larger-scale withdrawal, the troop movement was disappointing in that the force heading home for Russia actually only crossed the border into the neighboring Baltic country of Latvia, according to the Lithuanian Defense Ministry.

“Today’s withdrawal is what Russians call the first pancake that hasn’t come out well,” said ministry spokesman Algirdas Mezkauskas. And he added, “Unfortunately, I don’t see signs of preparations for a large-scale withdrawal.”

Lithuanian leaders, including President Vytautas Landsbergis, accuse the Russian government of dragging its feet on the withdrawal.

Still, even the small withdrawal of forces Tuesday marked a major symbolic victory for the Baltic states in the struggle for independence that culminated last September in the Soviet Union’s recognition of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia as sovereign countries.

Col. Gen. Victor Mironov, commander of the troops in the Baltic region, said he thinks it will take five years to fully withdraw all former Soviet troops.