Politburo changes

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33212, 30 April 1973, Page 13

Politburo changes

<N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright; ■ MOSCOW, April 29. Three new men have heen promoted into the Politburo: Marshal Grechko, aged 69, the Commander of the Armed Forces, Mr Andrei Gromyko, aged 63. the Soviet Foreign Minister since 1957, and Mr Yuri Andropov, aged 58, head of the Soviet security police and a man with broad foreign experience. The party meeting purged' Pyotor Shelest, the 65-year-’ oid former boss of the Ukrain a party, rumoured to have opposed the visit to Moscow of President Nixon in Mayl last year, and Mr Gennadi Voronov, aged 68. a former Khrushchev protege who slipped from favour over agricultural policies. "The Times” of London comments editorially: "The political changes in Moscow have the look of a compromise, they come just after an important meeting of the Central Committee conerned largely with foreign policy. “It known that Mr Brezhnev has had to face internal opposition to his rapprochment with the United States and West Germany. He nas been critised for putting trade before ideology and risking the securitv of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe by pursuing detente with ’go much enthusiasm. “He has staked a great deal on gaining rapid help for the Soviet economy from Western technology, but the Western response has been slower ’han he hoped and he may therefore have been under greater pressure recently. "German relations are also particularly sensitive in Mos-

cow —Mr Khrushchev fell’ just las he was mending fences [with Bonn. “The new Politburo both counters and accommodates these pressures. “One of the main opponents of detente, Mr Shelest, has been dropped. He has been under fire for some time, partly for his ambiguous attitude towards Ukrainian nationalism. “Mr Voronov, a critic of Mr Brezhnev’s more centralised agricultural policy, has also been dropped. This part of the reshuffle represents a consolidation of Mr Brezhnev’s ; authority. “The new members represent the other side of the coin —not so much opponents of detente as guarantors that it will not get out of control. “Mr Gromyko receives his reward for long and devoted service but also recognition that foreign policy is very important at the moment and needs the authority of an experienced and reliable hand. “More significant is the promotion of Marshal

'Grechko, the Minister of DeI fence, and Mr Andropov, head iof the Security Police. “They are the first holders of these offices to be full members of the Politburo for many years and will now have full voting powers in the country’s main decisionmaking body. “This clearly signifies that external defence and internal security have been elevated to a central position in the making of policy. “The prospect is therefore that the search for detente will continue but probably more cautiously, and with even more concern for tne military strength and internal cohesion of the Soviet alliance. “Anything else would alImost certainly require much i more radical changes,” the editorial concludes.