Slavic States Call Soviet Union Dead, Form a Commonwealth : Politics: The grouping of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine will have its capital in Minsk. The new accord seems to strip Gorbachev of all his remaining powers.

MOSCOW — Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus on Sunday declared the Soviet Union dead and established a new “commonwealth of independent states” with the capital in Minsk, capital of Belarus, rather than Moscow.

“We, the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, as the founding states of the U.S.S.R. and co-signatories of the 1922 Union Treaty . . . state that the U.S.S.R. is ceasing its existence as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality,” the preamble to their agreement proclaims.

The agreement--which was signed at a hunting lodge in the Republic of Belarus by Yeltsin, Ukrainian President Leonid M. Kravchuk and Belarus President Stanislav Shushkevich--appears to strip Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev of all his remaining powers.

“If the Soviet Union no longer exists, then the question arises: What is he the president of?” Pavel I. Voshchanov, Yeltsin’s spokesman, commented in a telephone interview.

The decision to create a commonwealth defied Gorbachev’s repeated warnings that disintegration of the union would prove disastrous for the country and possibly the world.

“It is impermissible to agree to the collapse of the union,” Gorbachev had said in an interview given Sunday to French television TF-1 before the announcement was made about the new commonwealth.

“This will be too costly to the peoples of the republics and the whole of Europe,” Gorbachev said. “In this sense, what is now happening in Yugoslavia will just look like a joke compared with the possible developments of the situation in our country.”

In declaring the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the three Slavic leaders pronounced the death of the continent-sized state created by V. I. Lenin 69 years ago, which came to be the vanguard of Communist revolutions across the globe, the greatest power in Europe and the chief Cold War threat to the United States.

But the Soviet Union, as a state, in fact has been defunct for many months. The new commonwealth, which is primarily an economic union, became the latest in a series of attempts to find a new way to bind its remnants in a looser alliance.

Although the statement made public by the three republics, whose residents account for 70% of the Soviet Union’s 290 million people, was resolute, the plan could be modified after negotiations with other republics that want to join.

The statement pledges that members will coordinate their economic reforms, jointly control nuclear weapons and adhere to the international agreements of the former Soviet Union, but it fails to mention any political or military union.

Although the commonwealth was designed by the three Slavic republics, other members of the former Soviet Union as well as “other states sharing the aims and principles of the new union” are welcome to join, the statement said.

“The first step was to find a solution mutually acceptable to the Slavic republics,” Voshchanov said. “This has been accomplished. The next step may be Kazakhstan joining the commonwealth.”

Kazakhstan President Nursultan A. Nazarbayev is expected to meet Yeltsin, Kravchuk, Shushkevich and Gorbachev today in the Kremlin to discuss the conditions of a new union. The opinion of Nazarbayev is especially important because of all the former Soviet republics, Kazakhstan is second in size of territory only to Russia.

A visibly distressed Nazarbayev gave an interview to reporters upon arriving in Moscow Sunday evening, urging the republics to stay together as a state.

“We should not scare the world,” Nazarbayev warned in the televised interview. “At least we have to agree upon a political and military union to keep the strategic weapons in one place. . . . Even now I remain loyal to the idea that we should not break up our state in this most difficult time, although everyone wants to feel independent. After the many years of imperial totalitarianism, I understand this desire.”

The announcement of the formation of the new commonwealth came so late Sunday that there was no immediate response from the other republics about whether they might join the alliance.

And although the new commonwealth appeared to end Gorbachev’s political career, his spokesman said that judgment should be postponed until after today’s scheduled meeting in the Kremlin, because there is still a chance that he could play a role in the new alliance.

“This possibility is not excluded,” Alexander A. Likhotal, a Gorbachev spokesman, said. “The door is not closed.”

Gorbachev’s main goal, Likhotal said, is to “use any chance to preserve a union of the peoples who live in the vast territory that was the Soviet Union” and not to protect his own role as the country’s leader.

Even if he does not remain the leader of the world’s largest country, Gorbachev still holds his place in history as the man who started the dramatic reform program that destroyed the dictatorship of the Communist Party in his own country, sparked democratic people’s revolutions in Eastern Europe and ended the Cold War.

“He has already won this position for destroying the inhuman, totalitarian system that ruled this country,” Likhotal said. “His role in history will be preserved.”

But in creating their alliance, the Slavic leaders stressed that they were forced to move without Gorbachev because, after 18 months of negotiations, the Kremlin leader’s plans for a Union Treaty that would have governed the relations between the republics had reached a “dead end.”

Earlier this year, Gorbachev persuaded the leaders of most of the republics to agree to a federation, but that fell apart after the failed conservative coup in August. Next Gorbachev proposed a confederation, but that was rejected by Yeltsin and Kravchuk because it still retained the idea of one state.

The new plan for a commonwealth came after the people of the Ukraine voted overwhelmingly for independence last week, making it clear that any kind of union with a central government would be impossible.

While rejecting the Soviet Union, the three Slavic leaders vowed that the member states of the new commonwealth would adhere to the old nation’s international agreements: “They guarantee to fulfill the international obligations, treaties and agreements of the former Soviet Union and secure joint control over nuclear weapons and their non-proliferation,” their statement said.

At the same time, the prime ministers of Ukraine and Belarus and Russia’s secretary of state signed an agreement outlining the republics’ economic cooperation. They pledged to coordinate their economic reform programs and work together to introduce free-market economies.

To that end, they agreed to build their economic relations based on the current Soviet currency, the ruble; sign banking agreements; jointly launch their programs for ending price controls, and coordinate their external economic activities and customs policies.

Their decision to put the “coordinating bodies” for the commonwealth in Minsk and not Moscow was obviously meant to send a strong signal to would-be members that in the new structure, they would no longer be dominated by Moscow as they were in the Soviet Union.

During 74 years of Soviet rule, Moscow, known as “the center,” had control over almost every aspect of the political and economic life of the country.

“Minsk is a very good option for a capital,” Oleg G. Rumyantsev, an influential Russian lawmaker said. “Like Brussels, (headquarters of the European Community), Minsk occupies a very convenient political spot between Moscow and Kiev, allowing no advantage to either of them.”

Ironically, Minsk was the birthplace of the Russian Communist movement. The first meeting of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party, which became the Communist Party, was held in Minsk in March, 1898. Lenin was not present because he had been exiled to Siberia two years earlier by the czar’s government.

The announcement of the new alliance left many questions unanswered about the fate of the Soviet military and the state bureaucracy.

“There are a number of uncertainties,” Andrei V. Ostalsky, foreign editor of the prestigious Izvestia newspaper, declared. “Some state structures still exist, such as the army and state security agency (KGB), and if they really wanted to, they could try to resist the process and delay it for some time. But that would be equal to a suicidal attempt. Good or bad, the fact remains: The old union no longer exists.”

Times Moscow bureau researcher Andrei Ostroukh contributed to this story.

A New Alliance

The leaders of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus said that the Soviet Union has ceased to exist. They proclaimed the formation of a commonwealth of independent states, which accounts for 70% of the Soviet Union’s 290 million people. The three leaders agreed:

* To make Minsk the administrative capital of the commonwealth.

* To open the commonwealth to all republics of the former Soviet Union.

* To fulfill international obligations from Soviet treaties and agreements and ensure unified control over nuclear weapons and their non-proliferation.

* To work together to introduce free-market economies.

* To retain the ruble as currency, sign banking agreements and jointly launch programs for ending price controls.

Source: Times Wire Services