Leaders mark Soviet dissolution, urge Ukraine dialogue
WASHINGTON - Three former top Soviet officials are marking the signing of a treaty 25 years ago that formally dissolved the Soviet Union and are urging dialogue on the deadly separatist conflict in Ukraine.
In December 1991, the leaders of the Soviet republics of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed a pact that broke up the USSR and defeated the efforts of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to keep the country together.
One of the signatories, Stanislav Shushkevich, then head of the Belarusian parliament, said Friday the deal helped avoid civil wars and many other calamities and required "a touch of heroism." He spoke at a think tank event in Washington.
Gennady Burbulis, an aide of the late Russian President Boris Yeltsin, said the Soviet Union was "an inviable entity" from the very beginning.
