Roanoke Times Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: MONDAY, March 12, 1990 TAG: 9003123083 SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: EVENING SOURCE: Associated Press DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
He did not, however, acknowledge the legality of the move, continuing to refer to Lithuania as a Soviet republic and not by the new name adopted by Lithuania's legislature.
Another member of the ruling Communist Party Politburo told reporters that the Kremlin will deal peacefully with Lithuania.
"We will not use force," Yegor Ligachev told reporters at the Congress of People's Deputies in Moscow. "We must resolve this by political means." Ligachev is believed to be one of the more conservative members of the party's ruling body.
"The information coming from Lithuania is alarming, and momentous decisions are being made there that will affect both Lithuania and the Soviet Union," Gorbachev told more than 2,000 deputies.
Meanwhile, a divided Soviet Congress today debated the powerful presidency championed by Gorbachev as essential for democracy, and the proposal faced possible rejection for lack of the required two-thirds majority.
But one progressive deputy who has fought placing so much power in the hands of one man said he would have to cave in if Gorbachev were to stake his own leadership on the issue. And Gorbachev's vice president argued that the proposal for a new presidency "rules out personal dictatorship."
The divisions in the 2,250-member Congress of People's Deputies reflected the turmoil in Soviet politics as Gorbachev begins his sixth year as Soviet leader.
The president and Communist Party chief told the 2,087 deputies present that they would be asked to amend the constitution to revoke the party's monopoly on power, create a new presidency and, if the presidency proposal is adopted, to elect the new president.
In another development, the entire Politburo of Mongolia's Communist Party resigned today and the leader of the longtime Soviet client state said the ruling party must renew itself to head off crisis.
Tass said the country's leader, Zhambyn Batmonh, made the announcement at a meeting of the party's policy-making Central Committee that had been moved ahead eight days in response to a demand by the hunger strikers.
The demonstrations, shown on Soviet television, showed the winds of democratic change that swept through Eastern Europe last year had reached Asia. Mongolia is a sparsely populated nation on the Soviet-Chinese border.