Arms Control at Home

In Russia, the cheering for foreign successes died away years ago, so President Boris Yeltsin found no laurels to rest upon when he returned from his first summit in Washington. With scarcely enough time to repack his bags, he headed south in search of solutions for the endless ethnic conflicts that are generating bloody battles and deep concern about civil war in several former Soviet republics.

Two of the biggest, Russia and Ukraine, have been bitterly at odds over such issues as ownership of the 300-ship Black Sea Fleet and issuing rival currencies. Meeting at the resort town of Sochi last week, Yeltsin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk took off their coats, put on their smiles and worked out an 18-point agreement. They pledged coordination of policies on currency and trade and reached a tentative compromise on dividing the fleet but sharing the bases. It was, said Kravchuk, "a fundamental turn in relations."

When they turned to face Moldova, however, the two silver-haired Presidents were less conciliatory. Russians and Ukrainians are trying to secede from the former republic, where ethnic Romanians predominate, moves to rejoin Romania. Fighting intensified in Bendery, a Slav enclave on the west bank of the Dniester River, as former Soviet army units joined in combat against Moldovans.

Yeltsin demanded an end to the bloodshed, and Kravchuk said he would support the Russian and Ukrainian secessionists if Moldova returned to Romania. Two days later, at a regional economic conference in Istanbul, Yeltsin and Moldovan President Mircea Snegur announced a cease-fire. Snegur said Moldova's parliament would examine ways to grant home rule to the Trans-Dniester region, where Russian and Ukrainian separatists are concentrated.

Meanwhile, Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze put down a coup attempt in Tbilisi and arrived several hours late for still another peace negotiation in Sochi. He and Yeltsin signed an agreement to end the fighting in South Ossetia, a part of Georgia where secessionists demand union with North Ossetia, a part of Russia.

Ethnic conflicts are not readily defused by traditional negotiation, and some or all of Yeltsin's new agreements may not hold. But by demonstrating his belief in bargaining and peaceful solutions, Yeltsin sets an example for those trying to build a new political system out of the old Soviet empire. (See related story on page 36.)