Latvia

This document is a 61-page transcript of the meeting of the SCD leadership held in Moscow on Saturday, July 30, 1955. The ostensible purpose of the meeting was to discuss the progress report of the regional counterintelligence branch in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (the Second Department of the KGB of the Latvian SSR). However, the meeting went beyond the Latvian case and focused on the discussion of the overall deficiencies of Soviet counterintelligence at that time and the ways to deal with them.

Kohl and Gorbachev review the state of bilateral relations, the Gulf crisis and the sitution in the Soviet Union, especialy with regards to Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost and the Soviet Union's economic reforms. They discuss Western economic assistance and food supplies for the Soviet Union as well.

Later referred to as the "Welles Declaration," this statement by acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles condemned the 1940 Soviet occupation of the Baltic states and set United States policy of refusing to recognize the new Soviet governments of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Discussion of separatist and nationalist sentiment in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Clinton and Kohl discuss the political and economic situation in Russia, negotiations with Ukraine over dismantling its nuclear stockpile, and other international issues.