RUSSIAN-CZECH TREATY CLEARS HURDLE.

The Czech parliament gave final approval September 27 to a framework treaty with Russia designed to remove past differences from the current and future agenda. The document, which replaces a Soviet-era treaty signed in 1970, calls for mutually advantageous economic relations and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. It was ratified by the Russian parliament in July 1994. The treaty contains a repudiation of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia which ended the pro-democracy movement known as the "Prague Spring," but does not contain the formal apology from Moscow for which many Czechs had hoped. (3)

The treaty was signed by presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vaclav Havel in 1993. Its ratification by the Czech parliament coincides with growing Russian hostility to NATO’s plans to admit former Soviet bloc countries. The treaty itself contains nothing that might be construed as jeopardizing the Czechs’ goal of early NATO membership.

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