Armies, Smugglers, and Borders: Part IV. The Process Continues

At the G7 conference in July 1992 in Munich, US and German leaders tried to link troop withdrawals to aid. Only then did Mr. Yeltsin suddenly prefer complete to partial withdrawal. At the fifth round of talks in Moscow, Baltic foreign ministers agreed to renounce any claims to territory within Russia, provide adequate housing to Russian troops, and compensate Russia for any Soviet military equipment left in their region. In exchange, Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev agreed to shorten the time needed to complete the withdrawal process. Further negotiations would be held to determine whether payments for equipment would be made in hard currency and what location would be selected to house the former Soviet soldiers.

Later that month, Russia's tactic changed drastically when Mr. Kozyrev decided to play the "human rights card". The logic seemed to be that if the West believed the Baltic states were engaged in egregious human rights practices, Russia could more easily retain control of the ice-free Baltic ports. Russian diplomats first raised the human rights argument at a UN General Assembly conference. In November 1992 Mr. Yeltsin reiterated this claim in a letter to UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. In that letter Mr. Yeltsin declared that until the alleged human rights issues were solved, troop withdrawals would halt.

But perhaps the Baltic states governments should have been the parties to declare human rights issues existed. Since the 1940 Soviet takeover, indigenous populations of these countries had been deported, imprisoned, and exiled to the extent that the very real prospect existed (particularly in Latvia) that the indigenous inhabitants would become a minority group within their countries' forced diverse demographic orders.

Where the Russian foreign ministry saw human rights problems, the defense ministry saw a lack of housing. A communique from the defense ministry indicated that troop withdrawals would resume when the housing issue was settled. Mr. Yeltsin reaffirmed this conclusion in complete disregard to his previous claims about human rights trouble.

Meanwhile the prevalent process of smuggling soldiers and equipment into the Baltic states from Russia continued. The usual method was to bring in the troops via ship, hide them in containers, take them from the ship to the interior of the country by truck, and deploy them there. This is a process that continues to this day - but now it is more likely to be vodka that is smuggled instead of soldiers.

After several investigative visits by representatives from the CSCE, it was determined that (1) the citizenship issue was of essential importance; and (2) because of constantly changing timetables provided by Russia's defense ministry, the troop withdrawals process would continue to grind towards no positive result.

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