22 Dec 2021 10:00 30 years ago

Baltic States hail Almaty agreements, but not going to join them

This news story first came out 30 years ago to the day, and we are publishing it today as part of Interfax's project, "Timeline of the Last Days of USSR. This Day 30 Years Ago." The project's goal is to reconstruct as fully as possible the timeline of the last few months of 1991 and to give everyone interested in understanding the historical processes of that period the opportunity to study and analyze the events that led to and accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the new Russian state. The complete timeline can be found in Russian.


VILNIUS. Dec 22 (Interfax) – Lithuania has welcomed the signing of the Almaty documents establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) but is not going to join them.

"This question is not even being asked," Lithuanian parliamentary deputy speaker Kazimieras Motieka told a correspondent of Baltfax, which is a joint venture of Interfax and the BNS news agency.

Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis spoke in similar terms. Stressing that this is his personal opinion, Godmanis said that only the Latvian parliament could fully clarify this issue.

Estonia's reaction to the Almaty agreements and its possible accession to the CIS is so far unknown. Observers believe that Estonia's position is unlikely to differ much from that of Latvia and Lithuania.