THE VOICE OF INTERNATIONAL LITHUANIA
VilNews has its own Google archive! Type a word in the above search box to find any article.
You can also follow us on Facebook. We have two different pages. Click to open and join.
|
Source Andy Potts at 24/02/2011
Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to hold Lithuania to ransom over its bid for independence in 1990, according to recently declassified files.
Documents by Swedish consul Dag Sebastian Alander, who was working in Leningrad at that time, say Gorbachev called for the payment of 21 billion roubles (about $126 billion according to the unofficial exchange rate of the time) and the transfer of the Klaipeda region to the Russian Soviet republic, delfi.lt reported.
The documents detail a meeting on March 9, 1990, in which Gorbachev apparently agreed to let Vilnius follow its own course – at a price.
No deal was struck at that time, and Lithuania eventually won its independence in Aug. 1991, a few months before the official collapse of the USSR.
VilNews e-magazine is published in Vilnius, Lithuania. Editor-in-Chief: Mr. Aage Myhre. Inquires to the editors: editor@VilNews.com.
Code of Ethics: See Section 2 – about VilNews. VilNews is not responsible for content on external links/web pages.
HOW TO ADVERTISE IN VILNEWS.
All content is copyrighted © 2011. UAB ‘VilNews’.