
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 22, 1990                   TAG: 9006220093
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short

SOVIET GEORGIA LIFTS EMBARGO ON LITHUANIA

The parliament of Soviet Georgia has decided to ignore President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's embargo on Lithuania and begin trading with the Baltic republic, Tass reported Thursday.

Another Soviet republic, Moldavia, already has taken similar action. The president of the Russian republic, Boris Yeltsin, has called for an end to the embargo, and he has discussed direct trade with Lithuanian officials.

Lithuania declared independence March 11, and Gorbachev cut off all oil, most natural gas and many raw materials shipments to the republic to try to force it to back down.

Last week, under growing domestic pressure to end the economic sanctions, the Soviet government restored 15 percent of the republic's natural gas needs.

The Georgian parliament also recognized "the right to self-determination and the political will of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and all union republics to create truly sovereign states," said Tass, the official Soviet news agency.

The parliament also expressed readiness to establish direct inter-state political and economic relations with them.

Georgia's action supporting the three Baltic states came Wednesday in a special legislative session, where the parliament created a commission to work on restoring its own independence, which was lost in 1921.

by CNB