BRAZAUSKAS SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT.

Lithuanian president Algirdas Brazauskas has refuted the remarks attributed to him by Russia’s RIA news agency, according to which Brazauskas is not keen on joining NATO and favors Boris Yeltsin’s proposals for an all-European security structure at NATO’s expense. Those allegations have been given wide international circulation recently. Strongly denying the allegations in national media interviews on October 31 and November 1, Brazauskas stressed that only membership in NATO and in the West European Union can guarantee Lithuania’s security, and that the country is "definitely and undoubtedly" seeking early accession to NATO and the EU Brazauskas further called on NATO not to "divide applicant countries into first- and second-class countries. This contradicts the basic goal of NATO’s enlargement–not to allow the emergence of zones of instability in Europe." (11)

Brazauskas, in tune with other Baltic leaders, is concerned over one viewpoint in NATO which holds, against other viewpoints, that the Baltic states, as former Soviet republics, are ineligible for admission or may at best be admitted only after the former Warsaw Pact countries.

Russia Explains Missile Test.