Reform-Minded Chief Is Elected in Latvia

MOSCOW — The Parliament of Soviet Latvia on Thursday elected a new reform-minded president for the Baltic republic.

The official news agency Tass said that Anatoly V. Gorbunov, 46, was chosen to replace former President Jan Vagris, 58, who was named leader of the Latvian Communist Party on Tuesday.

Despite his Russian name, Gorbunov is a Latvian, important in this once-independent republic where people have complained of “Russification” since it was absorbed, together with Estonia and Lithuania, into the Soviet Union in 1940.

Latvian intellectuals said Gorbunov’s appointment would be welcomed by the Popular Front, a reformist coalition that has already said it will run in parliamentary elections in the republic.