(FORTUNE Magazine) – Without question, one certain loser has emerged from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's Baltic crisis: a renewed Union Treaty. Gorbachev's ambitious plan to reunite his increasingly fractious empire by spelling out in treaty terms the rights and responsibilities of the 15 republics is disintegrating. Boris Yeltsin, leader of the Russian Republic, has grabbed his opportunity to strike out at the treaty -- and at his political opponent. He claims few of the republics will sign the new version now that they have seen the kind of union they are being asked to join. Says he: ''Who wants to sign a treaty with a noose around it?''

Meanwhile, an effort to cut both inflation and the black market by confiscating all 50- and 100-ruble notes has wiped out savings hoards and left many outraged. Said Commersant, a weekly: ''The reform reminds one if not of a well-planned robbery then of a military operation where the population is the enemy.'' Most foreign managers are waiting to see how many of his nine lives Gorbachev has left. Among the exceptions: IBM. It is moving ahead to sell the Soviets a second order of PS/2 PCs, 40,000 of them. Despite the military crackdown in Lithuania? Says a company spokesman: ''We just don't think it makes sense to react every time something goes up or down. While we certainly deplore the violence in the Baltic states, this business is not connected to it. The computers are not being used by the military. They're for the education of children, including those in the Baltics. That's a positive thing we don't mind being part of.'' Replies a spokeswoman for the Lithuanian parliament: ''Imported goods seldom leave Moscow. If IBM wants to help us, they should supply us directly.''