MOSCOW LOOKS TO BURY BALTIC ARCHIVES.

A Russian Foreign Ministry "senior official" said yesterday that Moscow would consider returning the Baltic archives to those three states, provided Russia’s Duma passes an enabling law and the Baltic states "clarify why they need the archives." Moscow would return the archives only if satisfied that the Baltic states would not start "another witchhunt" and that they would use the archives "for the sake of historical truth." (Interfax, October 8)

The interparliamentary Baltic Assembly on October 6 called for the return of archives taken to Russia at the end of Soviet rule. The archives cover the Soviet occupation and NKVD/KGB activities in the Baltic states. The Russian Foreign Ministry’s official position is that the Baltic states "joined the Soviet Union." The Duma has protested the detention of a few top leaders of the 1991 putsch in the Baltic states as a "witchhunt."

Two Neighbors Discreetly Question Ukraine’s Borders.