MOSCOW LOSES YALTA LINE, CLINGS TO RIBBENTROP-MOLOTOV LINE.

Lithuanian Parliament Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis told a news conference yesterday that the accession of neighboring Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary to NATO signified Russia’s failure to maintain the Yalta line which had divided Europe from World War II until the breakup of the Soviet Union. However, by resisting the Baltic goal to join NATO, Landsbergis observed, Moscow in effect clings to another line–the Ribbentrop-Molotov, which had isolated the Baltic states from the West.

Landsbergis derided Moscow’s two standard responses–namely, threats of military countermeasures coupled with warnings that ultranationalists may come to power in Moscow if NATO accepts the Baltic states as member countries. Moscow can do no more than “play that worn-out record,” he noted, and described NATO’s upcoming summit in Washington as a “test of the alliance’s ability to uphold its commitments to openness and further enlargement” (Radio Vilnius, March 22).

MILITARY ADVISERS URGE LATVIA TO INCREASE DEFENSE SPENDING.