Word: sokolovic
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...that, quite unlike Reagan, he is ailing. What is more, Chernenko's age is not at all unusual in the top leadership. Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, the voice of the Kremlin at international conferences for decades, is 75, though apparently in good health. Newly appointed Defense Minister Marshal Sergei Sokolov is 73; Premier Nikolai Tikhonov is 79. Sooner or later, they will have to give way to less familiar faces; the process, in fact, may already be under way behind the Kremlin's walls...
...bring change within the leadership, the Kremlin proved once again that it is possible to march forward and still stay in place. There had been speculation that Politburo Member Grigori Romanov, 61, a civilian defense-industry expert from Leningrad, might replace Ustinov. Instead the post went to Marshal Sergei Sokolov, the First Deputy Defense Minister, who at 73 is the oldest man ever appointed to the job. As one Western diplomat in Moscow noted, the Kremlin opted "for the safe and the obvious...
...With Ustinov gone, the number of voting members in the Politburo has dropped to eleven, the lowest count in more than a decade. Sokolov may be elevated to the Politburo, but he is not expected to wield the same power that Ustinov did. A professional soldier, Sokolov began his career in the tank corps in the 1930s and rose through the ranks to become a regional military commander and, eventually, the senior administrative officer of the Defense Ministry. Said a NATO diplomat in Moscow: "The appointment does not change the basic rule that policy is made by the civilians...
...naming of Sokolov was not expected to have much impact on next week's meeting between Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz. Whatever debate may have gone on in Moscow through much of 1984 about the wisdom of resuming arms-control talks with the U.S., the Kremlin seems determined to make every effort to limit President Reagan's so- called Star Wars plan. The selection of a defense-establishment functionary like Sokolov for the top military job seemed designed to ensure the continuity of that policy...
...during his eight years in the post, the military appeared to have gained unprecedented influence within the Kremlin. Politburo Member Grigori Romanov, 61, was named head of Ustinov's funeral committee, prompting speculation that he would become Defense Minister. But Moscow announced on Saturday that Marshal Sergei L. Sokolov, 73, would replace Ustinov...