Lithuania Embargo Begins : Natural Gas Cut Ordered by Soviets

MOSCOW —  Soviet officials ordered drastic cuts in natural gas supplies to Lithuania today, putting into force a threatened economic embargo to break the Baltic republic’s drive for independence, Lithuanians said.

Soviet officials also plan to cut off oil and gasoline to the republic Wednesday, Lithuanian officials said. Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had given Lithuania until Sunday to repeal laws enacted since the republic’s Parliament declared independence March 11.

Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis told British radio that he had not expected such a “brutal” move from Gorbachev but that it will not weaken the republic’s resolve.

“We can survive in poor conditions,” Landsbergis told Independent Radio News in London. “We survived in war conditions, in terrible postwar conditions, without any gas, without any oil. . . . We will survive.”

A telegram from the Soviet Western Trans Gas company to the Lithuanian gas company said Moscow had ordered the supply of natural gas to the republic “sharply curtailed” beginning today.

Teresa Juodenienie, a secretary for Premier Kazimiera Prunskiene, said that the telegram was sent to Lithuania’s gas authority rather than to the government and that officials did not immediately know whether the cut had already taken effect and what percentage would be reduced.

The telegram was read in the republic’s Parliament as the legislators were debating a response to Gorbachev’s ultimatum. A Lithuanian government spokesman said the response would probably not be voted on until Wednesday but stressed that the republic will not rescind its independence declaration.

In Washington, President Bush said he is watching to see if shipments are actually cut off to Lithuania and considering “appropriate responses.” He did not specify how the United States might respond.

“Clearly these announcements are contrary to the approach that we have urged and that others have urged upon the Soviet Union,” Bush said. “I would simple repeat that what we need is dialogue, discussion and a peaceful resolution of this great difficulty there.”

Juodenienie said the Lithuanian government received a telephone warning from the Druzhba, or Friendship, enterprise that supplies oil to Lithuania, saying that deliveries of oil and gasoline will be curtailed beginning Wednesday.

Lithuanian residents formed long lines at gasoline stations in recent days to fill up for what they fear might be the last time.

Lithuania Deputy Prime Minister Romualdas Ozolas, in an interview before the reduction of gas supplies was announced, said if Moscow “cut the tap,” there would be serious problems in less than a month.

“Natural gas (for heating) will disappear in 20 days, and the situation with electricity is the same,” Ozolas said.

Lithuania has been talking to Scandinavian and other Western countries about helping out if Moscow cut off energy supplies.

Prunskiene sent Gorbachev a telegram Monday seeking a meeting to negotiate Moscow’s objections to laws enacted by Lithuania.