Arms Minister misses parade

Press, 9 November 1984, Page 8

Arms Minister misses parade

NZPA-AP Moscow The Soviet Defence Minister, Marshal of the Soviet Union Dmitri Ustinov, overlord of the military for the last eight years, missed his most important annual occasion yesterday when he failed to take the ceremonial salute and give a speech at the Revolution Day parade. A Western diplomat said that it was believed to be the first time in Soviet history that the Defence Minister had skipped the parade, the annual show of Soviet military might.

A Soviet official told Western reporters on Red Square for the parade that Marshal Ustinov, aged 76, was said to be “unwell.” He did not specify the illness. A Western diplomat said that he had been told by Soviet officials at the parade that Marshall Ustinov had caught the flu. Last year Yuri Andropov missed the occasion — the first time a party leader had failed to appear for the most important J national holiday, the anniversary of the 1917 revolution that brought the communists to

power. Mr Andropov had been absent from public view since August 18, 1983, and never appeared until his death in February.

In the leader’s absence last year, television coverage of the parade focused on Marshal Ustinov, showing him as he stood erect and was driven in an open limousine to take the ceremonial salute before the troops on Red Square. He then joined the other Politburo members atop Lenin’s mausoleum and delivered his traditional speech.