I've been instructed by Mikhail Gorbachev to report to you that the Soviet Transcaucasian republics has suffered an extremely severe earthquake with very grave consequences.
Among the other candidates were Anatoly Berezovoi, a pilot and cosmonaut who took a 211-day space flight in 1982, and Gen. Vladimir Sein, political chief of the Transcaucasian Military District.
The soldiers were sent to the Armenian capital after Soviet lawmakers ordered emergency steps to resume rail traffic between the Transcaucasian republics.
Russia has signed such treaties with the Transcaucasian states of Georgia and Armenia as well as with the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan.
Igor Rodionov, who was head of the Transcaucasian Military District, was replaced by Col. Gen.