The Soviet Crackdown In The Baltics May Be An Economic One

On the eve of Mikhail Gorbachev’s historic visit to Lithuania, the Center for Security Policy released an analysis revealing his possible, hidden agenda towards that Captive Nation, the other Baltic states and indeed reforming countries throughout the Soviet empire.

This study, entitled Soviet Economic Leverage: Moscow’s Tool for Denying Baltic Independence Without Force, discusses past and present grounds for concern about Soviet willingness to use economic leverage to further the USSR’s political objectives. It also evaluates the degree to which Lithuanians and others striving for the sort of genuine democracy and economic opportunity still opposed by the Kremlin are susceptible to such pressure.

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., the Center’s director said, "Gorbachev has made clear his determination to prevent Lithuania from exercising self-determination and achieving the independence denied it fifty years ago by the notorious Nazi-Stalin pact. Hopefully, he has been persuaded that the use of force for this purpose will have the same, catastrophic results for detente that would attend his violent Soviet repression of reform elsewhere in Eastern Europe."

Gaffney added, "The question now is: Will Gorbachev try to ‘make the Baltics an offer they cannot refuse,’ by threatening to cut off energy supplies now provided to them by the Soviet Union?"

The Center’s analysis indicates that, while the answer to that question currently appears to be "Yes," the net effect of employing economic warfare against the Baltics may be to set back significantly Gorbachev’s efforts to resuscitate the Soviet economy. The Soviet Union imports substantial quantities of electricity, foodstuffs, manufactured goods and other items from the Baltic states — products already in short supply in the USSR.

The Center urges nations of the West to make clear that Soviet economic extortion of the Baltics — and other reforming states in the Soviet empire — would be fully as unacceptable as the use of force to prevent true democracy and the creation of free-market institutions. Moreover, the Center calls upon the West to create a Contingency Energy Fund to minimize the exposure of the Baltic and other peoples to such Soviet pressure should it, nonetheless, materialize.