MOSCOW -- The central Asian republic of Kazakhstan declared its sovereignty Thursday, the 14th of 15 Soviet republics to seek at least partial independence from Moscow.
The independent Interfax news agency said the Kazakh republic's Parliament declared 'the state structures of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic are given precedence over all others.'
Kazakhstan's declaration of sovereignty came a day after the national Parliament attempted to counter the movement to declare local control by reasserting the supremacy of central laws over local measures.
The move by the national legislature was in turn countered Wednesday by the Russian and Ukrainian parliaments, which voted to strengthen local control in the latest skirmish of what the official Tass news agency called the Soviet Union's 'battle of laws.'
Kazakhstan's declaration of sovereignty made the large but sparsely populated central Asian republic the 14th in the Soviet Union to declare sovereignty or independence from Moscow. Kirghizia is the only republic to have not made a similar move.
The Kazakh declaration included a clause banning nuclear weapons testing on the republic's territory, Interfax said. The Soviet Union's primary test site is near Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan.
