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Why Washington hesitated to support Lithuania s independence 31 years ago – opinion
Bradley Woodworth, Matthew Schmidt2021.03.11 08:00
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H W Bush in July 1991 / AP
Thirty-one years ago, on March 11, 1990, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania declared independence. As inevitable as it seems today, the United States was very far from supporting this outcome.
Moscow said the action was meaningless, and the administration of George H W Bush worried it could trigger the collapse of what it saw as a new international order made possible with Mikhail Gorbachev at the helm of the USSR.
In March 1990, Lithuania’s Baltic neighbors likewise finally held free elections to their republic-level Supreme Soviets. A year later, on March 3, 1991, the Estonian and Latvian SSRs held referenda asking permanent residents if they were in favor of the “reestablishment” of independence and statehood as the Republic of Estonia an
The Reform Party started coalition negotiation with the Center Party a day after the party resigned due to corruption allegations. ETV s weekly current affairs show AK. Nädal looked at whether the Reform Party is normalizing corruption when forming the new government and what it will mean for the new government.
Elmar Sepp and Ivo Parblus, the eastern money scandal, former Prime Minister Edgar Savisaar and now Hillar Teder and Porto Fanco are all chapters in the long and shady story of the Center Party s party finances. Removing Savisaar as chairman did not entirely remove corruption scandals from the party as was hoped by many.