VILNIUS, Nov 19 (Reuters) -- U.S. President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that enlargement of NATO to include Lithuania and other ex-Soviet Baltic republics was in Russia's interests.
      "I want Russia and President Vladimir Putin to understand there is no reason to fear NATO expansion -- membership of the Baltic countries in NATO is useful for Russia," Bush was quoted as saying in an interview with Lithuania's Lietuvos Rytas newspaper.
      The president did not explain how he thought Russia would benefit but said he would travel to St. Petersburg, Russia, on Friday to meet Putin after a NATO summit in Prague. Seven Eastern European countries are expected to be invited at the summit to join the security alliance.
      He said people in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia should recognise that "the world definitively changed" when they regained independence from Moscow in 1991.
      "Russia is no longer (their) enemy, and the United States is not Russia's enemy," he said, noting that the United States had never recognised Soviet annexation of the Baltic states after World War Two.
      The central purpose of this week's NATO summit in the Czech capital is to formally invite Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia and the three Baltic nations to join.
      It will be the alliance's first expansion since 1999, when the number of NATO allies rose to 19 with the addition of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.
      From St. Petersburg, Bush will travel to Lithuania and Romania before returning to Washington on Saturday.

      TALLINN, Estonia (AP) -- Nearly 60 years after occupying Estonia, hundreds of residents are seeking justice against eight Stalinist-era secret police for the deportation of more than 400 Saaremaa Islanders to Siberia in the 1940s.
      The trial, held where the crimes allegedly happened after the Red Army occupied this Baltic coastal nation of 1.4 million people in 1944, has been widely anticipated among the island's close-knit, 40,000 residents.
      Saar County Court in Kuressaare -- 200 kilometers (120 miles) southwest of the capital, Tallinn -- rented a conference hall to make room for the trial's attendees, including 200 witnesses.
      "This trial's about justice, not revenge," said Henno Kuurmann, a spokesman for investigators who spent three years on the case -- drawing on KGB secret police files discovered after Estonia regained independence after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
      The files were found in a vast, dark cellar archive in Tallinn -- left behind as the KGB retreated.
      The former agents -- all of them in their 70s and 80s -- are accused of sending purported enemies of the communist regime on ferries and cattle trains fit with bars to Siberia, 2000 kilometers (1200 miles) away. Among the exiled were children.
      Some 20,000 Estonians -- mostly well-off farmers -- were deported across the country during March 1949. Many later perished in the harsh conditions.
      All the agents on trial declared their innocence. Several argued they did not break any laws in effect in the Soviet Union at the time.
      "You know, life was different then," one defendant, Albert Kolga, told Estonia's Postimees daily last month. "I didn't break any laws."
      The accused include Vladimir Kask, 76; Pyotr Kislyi, 81; Viktor Martson, 81, Heino Laus, 75; Stephan Nikeyev, 78; Rudolf Sasask, 76; August Kolk, 77, and Kolga, 78. Kask, Sasask and Laus were not in Tuesday, citing illness.
      If convicted, they each face a maximum sentence of life in prison or a minimum of eight years.
      Saaremaa deportee Juta Vessik said the agents should be given jail time, no matter their age.
      "Let them try jail for themselves," she told Postimees. "After all, they deported old people -- even babies."
      Since 1991, five former Soviet agents have been convicted in Estonia, but only one, Karl-Leonhard was jailed. The 77-year-old died in February after serving just one year of an eight-year term.
      Tuesday, the trial was devoted to procedural matters. A 300-page indictment will be read aloud word for word later this week and the defendants are expected to plead not guilty, Kuurmann said.
      At least 15 million people were killed and another 40 million deported -- including more than 200,000 people from the Baltics -- by secret police during Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's rule.
      After regaining independence when the Soviet Union collapsed, all three Baltic states, including Latvia and Lithuania, vowed to prosecute anyone who took part in Soviet atrocities. No other ex-Soviet republics have held similar proceedings.
      Russia has denounced the trials as revenge against ailing old men and it has sent its diplomats to observe trials of those carrying Russian passports. It's also helped cover the defense costs of some accused.

      VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) -- President Valdas Adamkus, who spent five decades in exile in the United States after fleeing the Red Army, says it wasn't fear of Russia that led Lithuania to the verge of NATO membership.
      "I reject this philosophy that Russia's the enemy waiting to invade Western Europe," he told The Associated Press ahead of this week's NATO summit in Prague. "Those days are over."
      In an interview at his 14th-century palace in the capital of Vilnius, the 76-year-old head of state insisted his country sought membership in the U.S.-led defense alliance mainly "to share responsibility for the security and future of Europe."
      Adamkus was in Washington during the Sept. 11 attacks and saw smoke billowing after the Pentagon was hit. He said those events made Lithuania even more determined to contribute to world stability via NATO.
      And that's the message he plans to give President George W. Bush, who arrives in Vilnius on Friday for a two-day visit after a NATO summit at which this Lithuania and six other former communist countries are expected to get invitations to join the alliance.
      "I want to say I consider the U.S. the leader of the free world, and Lithuania wants to be on the same team," Adamkus told AP.
      Adamkus, who moved back to this former Soviet republic in 1997, has faced criticism for his friendly nods toward Moscow and for being too quick to accept U.S. decisions.
      Supporters say its his knack for wooing U.S. leaders that was a key factor in winning the coveted NATO invitation.
      "When Americans and Adamkus speak, their frame of reference is the same," said Rasa Razgaitis, the Vilnius mayor's chief of staff. "That certainly makes the decision-making process easier."
      Membership in NATO has been a key goal for Lithuania and neighboring Latvia and Estonia since they regained independence during the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
      Adamkus, who was elected president by a razor-thin margin in 1998 elections, fled Lithuania at 17 -- stowing away on a German military train -- as Soviet troops invaded and began arresting political opponents in 1944.
      He ended up in Chicago, where he worked on an auto plant assembly line, then got a college engineering degree. Later, he rose to the top ranks of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, praised for pursuing industrial polluters.
      After he was elected, Adamkus renounced his U.S. citizenship as required by the Lithuanian constitution. He also declines to accept his annual presidential salary of 150,000 litas (US$40,000), living on the annual pension of $60,000 he receives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The average salary in Lithuania is about 20,000 litas (US$6,000) a year.
      Still, many asked whether someone who'd spent most his life in a place where democracy and free markets were taken for granted possibly understand a people who'd barely known either?
      Even his Lithuanian set Adamkus apart. He speaks with an American accent and his word choice -- sometimes drawing on idioms that fell out of use after World War II -- was sometimes the butt of jokes.
      Within a year after his return, though, his approval ratings soared to 80 percent and opinion polls suggest he's a strong favorite to win re-election in a Dec. 22 vote.
      "I always felt Lithuanian," he said, a Lithuanian flag at his shoulder and a paperweight with a U.S. presidential seal on his desk. "But you can't wipe out 50 years of your life: My most creative and energetic years, I spent in the U.S."
      In Lithuania's parliamentary system, the president isn't involved in the day-to-day running of the country. But he's the main foreign envoy and he plays a critical role in forming new governments.
      Adamkus has not shied away from controversy, calling on Lithuanians to confront the 1941-44 Nazi occupation era when 240,000 Lithuanian Jews were killed. During the interview, a red book, entitled "Auschwitz 1940-1945," lay on the edge of his desk.

      PRAGUE, Czech Republic (Reuters) -- NATO leaders invited seven ex-communist east European countries Thursday to join in its biggest expansion yet, taking the U.S.-led alliance born in the Cold War deep into the former Soviet sphere.
      Secretary-General George Robertson announced at the start of a two-day Prague summit that the 19-nation alliance was opening its doors to Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, spreading NATO's security guarantee from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
      "By welcoming seven members, we will not only add to our military capabilities, we will refresh the spirit of this great democratic alliance, " President Bush told fellow leaders, calling NATO "our nation's most important alliance."
      Slovak Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan told reporters: "It is an almost inexpressible, thrilling feeling. Of course, a lot work is still ahead of us as we must become an actual member, but for now, it is a wonderful and thrilling feeling."
      The newcomers will take their seats in 2004 alongside Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, which in 1999 became the first three former Warsaw Pact countries to join the Western defense pact.
      Robertson said NATO, which will now have 26 members and a land border with Russia -- no longer an adversary -- would keep its door open to further candidates from the Balkans region.
      The leaders were set to approve a strike force to combat new threats, and pledge to modernize their armed forces in a drive to make the Atlantic Alliance, marginalized in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, relevant to the post-September 11 world.
      But Bush's quest for allied backing for the threat of war against Iraq if it does not rid itself of its alleged weapons of mass destruction seemed bound to dominate what NATO has proclaimed as a "transformation summit."
      Coalition of the Willing
      Bush raised the stakes with President Saddam Hussein on Wednesday by warning that if he declared to the United Nations on Dec. 8 that Iraq had no nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, "he will have entered his final stage with a lie, and deception this time will not be tolerated."
      British Prime Minister Tony Blair said after a pre-summit meeting with Bush that NATO was united on the need for Saddam to disarm "and how that happens is a choice for him."
      Bush used the eve of the NATO meeting to seek recruits for a U.S.-led "coalition of the willing" to force Iraq to disarm if U.N. weapons inspections were unable to do the job. The White House said about 50 countries had been approached.
      But the president sought to assuage European sensitivities by insisting he would prefer a peaceful solution.
      Officials said NATO leaders would unanimously endorse the latest toughly worded U.N. resolution sending inspectors back to Baghdad for a final disarmament drive, but they were unlikely to discuss any collective military action.
      British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said individual allies, including Britain, would contribute forces to a coalition, using experience in training and fighting together gained in NATO.
      The allies were set to pledge to develop a focused list of military capabilities such as strategic airlift, air-to-air refueling, secure communications, precision-guided weapons, ground surveillance and electronic warfare, as well as protection against weapons of mass destruction.
      They would also approve a U.S. proposal for a 20,000-strong NATO Response Force combining existing high-readiness units to meet threats outside the Euro-Atlantic area.
      But defense analysts question whether many European nations, under pressure to curb budget deficits in a tough economic situation, will make good on the pledges. Without such new capabilities the transatlantic military gap will widen further.
      U.S. officials say some of the new and future NATO members are more supportive on Iraq than old allies such as France and Germany.
      Russian President Vladimir Putin has softened his country's opposition to NATO's enlargement as part of a broad pro-Western policy. But many in Moscow still have misgivings, particularly about the alliance's expansion onto former Soviet soil in the three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
      "Russia will not dramatize the situation concerning our relations with NATO," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko wrote in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper. "We honor the right of every state to decide for itself in which international organizations to participate."
      "Of course, we cannot remain unmoved by the arrival of the military potential of NATO at Russia's borders, just a few dozen kilometers from St Petersburg."

      TALLINN, Estonia (AP) -- Champagne corks popped, legislators cheered and one leader shaved his beard in celebration as eastern Europeans rejoiced Thursday after receiving invitations to join NATO.
      Latvian Prime Minister Einars Repse called Thursday the most important day in his country's history since the Baltics regained independence during the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
      "This means our independence and the ideals of freedom and democracy that we fought for will be protected forever," he said, speaking to a crowd in driving snow by the Freedom Monument in Riga, Latvia's capital.
      Estonian legislator Mart Laar kept the vow he made as premier last year that he'd shave his trademark blond beard if NATO invited the Baltics, which made entry the country's top foreign policy priority.
      NATO issued invitations to seven ex-communist nations -- the Baltic states, plus Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia -- during its summit Thursday in Prague, the Czech capital. All are expected to join as full members in 2004.
      "This is the first moment of national dignity after World War I," said the mayor of the Romanian capital of Bucharest, Traian Basescu. After World War II, Romania also fell under communist dictatorship.
      A poster emblazoned with American and Romanian flags graced the front of the main press building in Bucharest. It read, "We thank you."
      After the Prague announcement, lawmakers in Bulgaria suspended debate on next year's budget to approve a resolution 210-1 praising NATO's decision.
      "Today, Bulgaria achieved its first significant success in the 21st century," said Plamen Panayotov, from the governing National Movement Simeon II.
      Many Baltic media broadcast the event live and politicians watched TVs, shouting approval as their country's name was read.
      Because of once-vehement Russian objections to NATO membership for ex-Soviet republics, the Baltic NATO bids were seen as far more contentious than the others -- and they were initially considered long shots for invitations.
      That's made their success all the sweeter.
      "Considering where we were years ago, it's very gratifying," said Estonian parliamentarian Mari-Ann Kelam, minutes after receiving the news and sipping champagne in celebration.
      Politicians have avoided saying so, but most Balts are quick to point to Russia as reason No. 1 for wanting to snuggle under the alliance's protective wing.
      "You know other neighbors who might ever invade us?" said Tonu Ekberg, 58, shopping at a market in Tallinn, Estonia's capital. "Sweden? Finland? Come on!"

      PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- In a historic eastward shift, NATO agreed to expand its membership into the territory of the former Soviet Union on Thursday amid a makeover designed to answer new threats of global terrorism.
      The Western alliance -- which for decades confronted the U.S.S.R. across the barbed-wire divides of Central Europe -- invited seven ex-communist countries under its security umbrella as part of reforms that U.S. President George W. Bush called the most significant in NATO's 53-year history.
      "It is a truly defining moment for the Atlantic alliance," NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said.
      Barely a decade since they regained independence from the Soviet Union, the Baltic nations of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania joined Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in receiving a call to become NATO members at the alliance's first summit behind the old Iron Curtain.
      "This is a great day for Latvia," President Vaira Vike Freiberga said. "For us, it means the righting of the injustices of history ... rejoining the family of free, democratic and independent nations."
      The alliance also agreed to set up a 20,000-strong rapid response force able to deploy within days against terrorists or rogue states as part of a raft of military reforms designed to ensure an alliance that was set up to fight the Cold War remains relevant in the post-Sept. 11 era.
      "NATO must be able to field forces that can move quickly to wherever they are needed ... to sustain operations over distance and time," the leaders said in a statement.
      The new strategy breaks from NATO traditional focus on Europe to deploy forces quickly against threats wherever they emerge.
      Although the leaders held back from offering military support to the United States should it go to war against Iraq, they issued a statement saying "NATO allies stand united in their commitment to take effective action to assist and support the efforts of the U.N. to ensure full and immediate compliance by Iraq."
      The seven new members will join the alliance in May 2004 after their parliaments and those of the 19 NATO member countries ratify the expansion. Three other candidates -- Macedonia, Albania and Croatia -- were told to wait.
      "Today's decision reaffirms our commitment to freedom and our commitment to a Europe that is whole and free and at peace," Bush told the meeting.
      French President Jacques Chirac said the expansion combined with the European Union's expected invitation to 10 new members next month would seal the end of the continent's Cold War divisions.
      "Europe and North America are reaffirming the indivisible nature of their security," he said.
      Among the decisions taken to modernize the alliance military, leaders agreed to streamline the alliance's command structures, with a U.S. general to be appointed strategic commander for worldwide operations.
      They stressed the need to prepare forces to neutralize threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
      Allies also made commitments to beef up their military hardware and narrow the gap between U.S. military might and European forces in areas such as strategic airlift, air-to-air refueling, precision-guided missiles and suppression of enemy air defenses.
      "Terrorism ... poses a grave and growing threat to alliance populations, forces and territory," the leaders said. "We are determined to combat this scourge for as long as necessary."
      The alliance also initiated a NATO missile defense study to examine how it could join the United States in setting up an international shield to intercept incoming missiles.
      In a speech Wednesday on the eve of the summit, Bush stressed that the new NATO members will have to pull their own weight in the alliance like the Poles, Hungarians and Czechs who joined in 1999 as the first ex-communist members. But once in, they will enjoy the protection of the all-for-one, one-for-all security guarantees that come with membership.
      "Anyone who would choose you for an enemy also chooses us for an enemy," Bush said. "Never again in the face of aggression will you stand alone."
      For the leaders of former East bloc nations, a NATO summit in the city where invading Soviet tanks snuffed out opposition in 1968 was packed with symbolism.
      "A clear signal is given not only for all Europeans, but for the entire world, that the era when countries were divided by force into spheres of influence or when the strong were used to subjugate the weaker has come to an end once and for all," said Czech President Vaclav Havel, the summit host.
      "For us, this is a new beginning," added President Ion Iliescu of Romania, which was rewarded for strong support for the U.S. war on terrorism and strategic location on the Black Sea. Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda called it "a milestone on our way to lasting security."
      Russia muted its once strident opposition to the expansion after NATO signed a wide-ranging cooperation agreement with it in May. Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was scheduled to join the final day of the summit Friday.
      Bush's comments in Prague were a strong affirmation of U.S. support for NATO, whose future was questioned by critics in the United States sidelined it during the war against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan last year.
      "It strengthens our nation's most important alliance, NATO," Bush said of the expansion. "We will refresh the spirit of this great democratic alliance."
      However, with Germany insisting it won't send troops to Iraq and other allies lukewarm about participation, Bush said the U.S. would seek support from "coalition of the willing," rather than NATO, if efforts to avoid a war breakdown.

      ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) -- President Bush arrived in Russia on Friday to assure his host Vladimir Putin that NATO's expansion into former Soviet territory posed no threat.
      On arrival in a damp, overcast St Petersburg, city Bush was whisked off to the nearby town of Pushkin, site of the elaborate Summer Palace of Russia's former Czars for talks with Putin on the Atlantic Alliance, Iraq and Chechnya.
      In an interview broadcast on Russian television on Thursday Bush said he would seek to persuade the Russian leader to press for a peaceful solution in the province, where Russian forces have been battling separatists for eight years.
      At the NATO summit in Prague, Secretary-General George Robertson said the allies did not raise Moscow's military crackdown in Chechnya and expressed their sympathy over last month's hostage-taking by Chechen gunmen in a Moscow theater.
      Putin chose to stay away from the Prague summit to avoid the embarrassment of appearing to bless NATO's decision to take in seven new members, including the former Soviet Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- once a red rag to Russia.
      Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, representing Russia in Prague, signaled acceptance of NATO enlargement, telling reporters the alliance's changed military posture meant it would now be confronting the same terrorist threats as Russia.
      "We consider this transformation of NATO should be welcomed," he said.
      Iraq Talks
      Bush arrived on Air Force One with Ivanov and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
      U.S. officials said Bush would pledge to respect Russia's interests in any military action to disarm Iraq, and soften the blow of NATO's expansion to within a few hours' drive of the city on the Neva River. Moscow has extensive cooperation in the oil sector dating from Soviet times.
      The United States, Bush told Russia's NTV television, hoped Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would give up dangerous weapons Washington maintains he holds. But if he failed to do so, the United States and its allies would "disarm him in the name of peace," Bush said in remarks translated into Russian.
      "If a regime change does take place, we will work to form a new leadership in the country which will recognize the rights of all citizens and maintain Iraq's unity. We fully realize that Russia has economic interests in Iraq, as do other countries. Of course, these interests will be taken into account."
      Moscow opposed U.S. efforts to obtain a U.N. Security Council resolution ensuring the automatic use of force if Baghdad obstructed U.N. experts, who have resumed their search for banned weapons of mass destruction.
      Russia has urged U.N. weapons inspectors to avoid mistakes of four years ago when their pullout, which they blamed on Iraqi obstruction. Moscow fears weapons inspections could be used by the United States to justify a full-scale invasion of Iraq.
      In his interview Bush, making his second visit this year to Russia, backed Putin's handling of last month's theater siege, in which security forces used gas to subdue armed rebels and rescue hostages. A total of 128 hostages and 41 guerrillas died.
      He said he would urge Putin to pursue a peaceful settlement with separatists in the region.

      VILNIUS (Reuters) -- President Bush praised Baltic nations on Saturday for defeating tyranny and told the NATO invitees they had the full protection of American military might in confronting any future aggression.
      Bush won a loud cheer when he emphasized NATO's security guarantee was backed by the U.S. armed forces.
      "Our alliance has made a solemn pledge of protection. Anyone who would chose Lithuania as an enemy has also made an enemy of the United States of America," said Bush.
      "NATO and Bush -- that's two security guarantees and now Russia will never attack us again," said Julija Kairiene, a middle-aged housewife waving a Stars and Stripes flag.
      Bush said Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia's fight to rid themselves of Soviet occupation was a lesson on the need to stand up to tyranny, an argument he has invoked frequently to back his drive to disarm Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
      "We must be willing to stand in the face of evil and to have the courage to always face danger," Bush told an enthusiastic crowd of several thousand at Rotuse Square in the 16th century center of historic Vilnius.
      The three Baltic states endured half a century of occupation by the Soviet Union until they won their freedom in 1991. They remain suspicious of Moscow and regard NATO as a guarantee they will never again be dominated by Russia.
      Vladimir Putin
      Bush carefully avoided mention of who tyrannized the Baltics, mindful of lingering Russian unhappiness at the Prague NATO summit decision to expand into Moscow's backyard and keen to keep warm ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
      Bush met Putin in St. Petersburg on Friday, winning grudging acceptance of NATO expansion and qualified backing for his drive to rid Iraq of suspected weapons of mass destruction.
      Putin said finding and destroying prohibited weaponry was the job of the United Nations, whose arms inspectors returned to Baghdad this week for the first time in four years.
      In Prague, Bush won a pledge from NATO allies of "effective action" to back the U.N. disarming of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a formulation that papered over unhappiness in many European states at Washington's willingness to go to war.
      East European states are less critical of U.S. policy than their West European counterparts and Bush has looked to them as a counterweight to traditional NATO pillars France and Germany, who see little merit in taking weapons from Saddam by force.
      Bush sees the moral necessity of rewarding the "love of liberty" in Eastern Europe in the same light as the obligation which he says he feels to fight "tyrants" like Saddam.
      NATO's new members can reinvigorate the alliance's sense of purpose, he said, and help reshape the former Cold War defense machine into a broad alliance that can reach beyond its borders to fight global terrorism.
      "Our alliance of freedom is being tested again by a new and terrible danger," he said in Vilnius. "Like Nazis and communists before them the terrorists seek to end lives and control all life...the terrorists will be defeated."
      Warm Welcome
      Bush feels comfortable and welcome in eastern Europe and in his five-day trip across the Atlantic, which ends in Romania later on Saturday, he has only visited ex-communist countries.
      In Bucharest he will congratulate Black Sea neighbors Romania and Bulgaria on joining the alliance and make a final speech to sum up the security challenges facing Europe.
      In tiny Lithuania, home to only 3.5 million people, Bush's visit was a celebration of escaping the hated Soviet fold.
      "Lithuania will never again be mistreated in the way that it has been in the past," said Vytautas Landsbergis, who defied last-ditch Soviet attempts to reimpose control by force and led Lithuania to freedom in 1991.
      "We were captive nations under Soviet rule, but we always felt the strong support of the United States which never recognized the Soviet occupation," the former President added.
      Bush returns to Washington on Saturday evening.

      Vilnius -- President Bush's speech Saturday to about 5,000 Lithuanians in Vilnius, the capital:
      Thank you, all.
      (APPLAUSE)
      Thank you all very much.
      (APPLAUSE)
      Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for your friendship, and thank you for your leadership.
      I'm also honored to be here with the presidents of Latvia and Estonia. I want to thank them for coming, as well.
      Laura and I are honored to be here with you. Thank you for coming out to say hello.
      (APPLAUSE)
      This is a great day in the history of Lithuania, in the history of the Baltics, in the history of NATO, and in the history of freedom.
      (APPLAUSE)
      The countries of NATO have opened the doors of our alliance to Lithuania and six other European democracies. And I have the honor of sharing this message with you: We proudly invite Lithuania to join us in NATO, the great Atlantic alliance.
      (APPLAUSE)
      Many doubted that freedom would come to this country. But the United States always recognized an independent Lithuania.
      (APPLAUSE)
      We knew that this continent would not remain divided. We knew that arbitrary lines drawn by dictators would be erased. And those lines are now gone. No more Munichs, no more Yaltas.
      (APPLAUSE)
      The long night of fear, uncertainty and loneliness is over. You are joining the strong and growing family of NATO. Our alliance has made a solemn pledge of protection, and anyone who would choose Lithuania as an enemy has also made an enemy of the United States of America.
      (APPLAUSE)
      In the face of aggression, the brave people of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will never again stand alone.
      (APPLAUSE)
      (AUDIENCE CHANTS "THANK YOU" IN LITHUANIAN)
      You're welcome.
      (LAUGHTER)
      You are needed in the NATO alliance. You will contribute to our common security. Yet the strength of NATO does not only depend on the might of armies, but on the character of men and women.
      We must be willing to stand in the face of evil, to have the courage to always face danger. The people of the Baltic states have shown these qualities to the world. You have known cruel oppression and withstood it. You were held captive by an empire, and you outlived it. And because you have paid its cost, you know the value of human freedom.
      (APPLAUSE)
      Lithuania today is true to its best traditions of democracy and tolerance and religious liberty. And you have earned the respect of my nation and all nations.
      (APPLAUSE)
      Our alliance of freedom is being tested again by new and terrible dangers, like the Nazis and the Communists before them. The terrorists seek to end lives and control all life. And like the Nazis and the Communists before them, they will be opposed by free nations, and the terrorists will be defeated.
      (APPLAUSE)
      Over a decade ago, hundreds of thousands of Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians joined hands from Tallinn to Vilnius to show your love for freedom. Near Cathedral Square is a stone commemorating that struggle. Inscribed on that stone is one word: Miracle.
      The recent history of the Baltic states truly is a miracle. You've gained your freedom. You've won your independence. You now join a great alliance. And your miracle goes on.
      (APPLAUSE)
      Today, on this great day, may God bless the memory of Lithuania patriots and freedom fighters who did not live to see this moment. And may God always bless the brave and the free people of Lithuania.
      (APPLAUSE)
      Thank you for coming today. May God bless freedom.
      (APPLAUSE)
      END

      MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Saturday that Moscow looks forward to closer ties with NATO but urged its new members to join arms control agreements that would prevent a military buildup at Russia's doorstep.
      "We have noticed that NATO representatives and the heads of its member states underlined that NATO doesn't view Russia as an enemy and will undergo an internal transformation to tackle new threats, including international terrorism," Ivanov said after talks with his Chinese counterpart Tang Jiaxuan in Moscow.
      "If this decision is implemented and NATO starts to more actively participate in the international campaign against terrorism, opportunities for Russia-NATO cooperation will expand," Ivanov said.
      In stark contrast with its loud protests in the past, Russia reacted calmly to NATO's decision this week to embrace the ex-Soviet Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania along with Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Russian officials said they do not see the move as a threat because of new, warmer ties with the alliance.
      At the same time, Moscow said it would closely monitor NATO's movements in the military sphere.
      "We expect that NATO members will ratify the modified Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty and all the future NATO members will also join it," Ivanov said.
      The CFE treaty, the modified version of which was signed in 1999 in Istanbul, sets ceilings for weapons levels in different areas of Europe. Russia wants the new NATO members, particularly the Baltics, to join it to prevent a military buildup near its borders.

      RIGA, LATVIA (AP) -- Days after being invited to join NATO, Latvia's new foreign minister said Monday that her country's entry into the alliance remains a top priority.
      Entrance into the European Union, is also a top priority, Sandra Kalniete said.
      Kalniete stressed the utmost importance of the current moment for the history of Latvia. She just returned from Prague, where Latvia got invitation to join NATO.
      "In Prague the line was drawn under the consequences of the Second World War for the Baltic states, she said. "A new era in Latvian history has started."
      Latvia, along with six other eastern European nations, including Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, were invited to join the 19-nation alliance last week.
      Kalniete said Latvia is eager for NATO experts to arrive on Dec. 4 and said there would likely be three or four rounds of entry negotiations.
      Also key for the former Soviet republic is EU membership.
      The EU meets in Copenhagen, Denmark, Dec. 12-13, and it is widely expected that Latvia will be invited to join the group. But Latvians must first vote in referendum next year whether to join.
      "If citizens will reject EU accession on the referendum, it will be incomprehensible," Kalniete said.
      To avoid a negative showing, she said the government will focus on the benefits of EU membership for Latvians.
      "If we will do our part properly, people will say yes to the EU," she said.

      PRAGUE -- There was a long list of dignitaries in the hallways, conference rooms, and state dinners at last week's NATO summit who had done so much to usher Eastern Europe from its dark history and into its brighter future.
      There was the feted host, the playwright and Czech president Vaclav Havel, who led the Velvet Revolution, sweeping out a Soviet-backed regime. On the fringe of the meeting, there was a quiet newspaper editor wearing a beat-up suede jacket named Adam Michnik, who spent years in communist jails for his role as an underground leader of Poland's Solidarity movement.
      But it was President Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia -- with a moving speech and her dramatic narrative of fleeing her country in World War II, only to return to it a half-century later into the Western alliance - who seemed to embody the history in the making at the gathering.
      ''Our people have been tested in the fires of history, and they have been tempered in the furnaces of suffering and injustice,'' Vike-Freiberga, 64, said Thursday in her speech. ''They know the meaning and the value of liberty; and they know that it is worth every effort to support it, to maintain it, to stand for it, and to fight for it.''
      Senior White House officials said President Bush was profoundly moved by her words, and as she spoke without any prepared text before the other 25 heads of state, the room was still and the leaders listened.
      The US ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Nicholas Burns, said: ''You could feel what she was saying. There was absolute silence in that room. President Bush was very moved by it, and I believe it was one of the finest speeches I have ever heard in Europe.''
      Thursday night, at the heads of state dinner, Vike-Freiberga was invited to sit at the head table with Bush, Havel, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, and President Jacques Chirac of France.
      Like neighboring countries Estonia and Lithuania, also invited to join NATO at the summit, Latvia had long been a historical stomping ground for Europe's great powers. In the 20th century, the country fell victim to two of history's most murderous regimes: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union.
      And after the fall of the Soviet Union, they waited for a decade as Western powers, leery of offending Moscow, hesitated to invite them to join the alliance.
      As president, Vike-Freiberga has had little patience for Moscow's objections to Latvia joining NATO. She said she would like Latvia to ''get rid of the tag'' of being called a ''former Soviet country'' forever. But she has also reached out to the country's large Russian minority.
      As a young girl, Vike-Freiberga witnessed both the Russian and German invasions of her homeland, which she fled with her family in 1944 ahead of the advancing Red Army. Officials attending the NATO summit say her history, and that of her country, reflects the message of overcoming tyranny with hope they wished to convey at the two-day meeting in the Czech capital.
      She has recounted vivid memories of her family's escape: an allied air raid, the loss of a 6-month old sister to pneumonia, and the sight of a girl who had been gang-raped and mutilated by Soviet soldiers.
      Her family first stayed in a disease-infested refugee camp in Germany, lived briefly in Morocco, and eventually settled in Toronto.
      Vike-Freiberga's first job was as a bank teller. She eventually earned a doctorate from McGill University and became a professor of psychology at the University of Montreal. She returned to an independent Latvia in 1998 and won the country's presidency in June 1999.
      ''My personal history is with hundreds of millions who suffered a similar fate,'' she said Friday as the summit ended. ''Millions have been submitted to the tyranny of totalitarian powers. And we have to remember that it happened here in Europe, in civilized Europe.''
      This story ran on page A32 of the Boston Globe on 11/24/2002.

      THE MOSCOW TIMES -- The government relaunched production of Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya vodka on Friday but its rival for the trademarks, SPI Group, said it would never be able to export the famous brands.
      "This is a very important event, not just economically, but politically,"
      Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev told reporters at the Chernogolovsky Distillery after plucking the first bottle off the conveyor belt.
      The vodka is being produced under license with Soyuzplodoimport, which the Agriculture Ministry set up last year to manage 43 vodka trademarks held by the government, including Moskovskaya and Stolichnaya.
      State trademark agency Rospatent handed over the brands to the ministry earlier this year following a protracted series of court cases against SPI Group, which was accused of acquiring them illegally from Soyuzplodoimport in the mid-90s.
      SPI was banned from producing the vodka domestically but retained the rights to the brands abroad--to the ire of the government.
      SPI now produces and bottles the vodka in Latvia.
      Before Friday, no Stolichnaya or Moskovskaya had been made in Russia for months, but leftover stock was being sold.
      Soyuzplodoimport chief Vladimir Loginov called the launch a victory on the domestic front of the vodka war.
      "Soon, production of all the vodkas on the government list will begin," Loginov said. "Starka Sibirskaya, Stolovaya, Russkaya will all be produced starting next year. Not just here but all over the country."
      Loginov said lawsuits would be filed in European courts by the end of the month challenging SPI's distribution rights abroad.
      SPI was unfazed and even welcomed the challenge. "We will be glad when they file suit--we can't wait," SPI spokesman Sergei Bogoslavsky said.
      SPI says it won a court case in Germany last month overturning a verdict upholding a complaint against the company's German distributors by a local rival, Dovgan GmbH. Dovgan argued that SPI did not have the right to label Moskovskaya "genuine Russian vodka" because it was produced in Latvia. The Hamburg court ruled that SPI could write "genuine Russian vodka" on the bottle, but must also say that it is made in Latvia on the reverse side of the label. "Once again they'll prove that it is impossible to win. Once again the government will be convinced of this," Bogoslavsky said.
      The yearlong battle began when Yury Shefler, while head of the old Soyuzplodoimport, the privatized successor to the Soviet food and drink import-export agency, sold the trademarks to Soyuzplodimport, a similarly named company he set up.
      Shefler had controlled the agency after the Soviet Union's breakup and sold its only valuable assets--the domestic rights to the vodka brands--to what would become SPI Group's Russian division in 1997 for $300,000.
      The government says the deal was illegal and the price ridiculously low, but Shefler defended the transaction, saying he shouldered the company's multimillion dollar debts. SPI began registering the vodka rights abroad, in some cases fighting for them in the courts, and today the company owns the rights to the brands in more than 100 countries. Earlier this year, customs officials in Kaliningrad, where SPI's main distillery was located, impounded $40 million worth of Stolichnaya and Moskovsakya, after which Shefler moved production to Latvia.
      A criminal investigation was later launched after Loginov said Shefler threatened to have him killed. A criminal investigation was later launched after Soyuzplodoimport's Loginov claimed Shefler had threatened to have him killed.
      Shefler denies the allegation, which he says is meant to discredit him. Nonetheless the Prosecutor General's Office wants him for questioning and Shefler says he will not return to Russia.
      Meanwhile, Soyuzplodoimport is ready to crank up production and has signed agreements with eight domestic distilleries to produce a total of 5 million decaliters of vodka per year, Loginov said Friday. More agreements will follow, said Loginov, adding that some 10 million decaliters of vodka should be produced by the end of 2003. If this target is met it would make the state-owned company a major player on the domestic market. By comparison the Kristall Distillery--the country's largest produced 10 million decaliters last year.
      Under the licensing agreements, the distilleries earn 60 kopeks per half-liter bottle, meaning the distilleries could earn a total of $3.9 million if targets are met. But this is a fraction of the money that the brands bring in abroad. SPI expects to post revenues of almost $700 million this year for the 3 million decaliters it plans to sell on Western markets.
      Soyuzplodoimport said its export goal is also 3 million decaliters.
      Soyuzplodoimport has already signed an export agreement with the Chernogolovsky Distillery, but the company will have to wait for favorable court rulings abroad before shipments can begin.