Rapid changes in the Kremlin

Press, 9 May 1985, Page 12

Rapid changes in the Kremlin

From CHARLES BREMNER, of Reuter, in Moscow

In less than two months since coming to office, the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, has taken rapid hold of the levers of power and laid the groundwork for a programme to shape the country in the closing years of this century. After a hectic first eight weeks in which Mr Gorbachev has promoted allies, imposed his authority, and set the tone for changes to come. Informed Soviet sources and foreign diplomats believe he is now moving into a second phase. Mr Gorbachev, who is 54, is said to be supervising the work of an array of commissions that he set up to review policy in vital areas, including the economy and foreign concerns such as Afghanistan and relations with the United States. Decisions on these fronts will be enshrined in a new five-year plan and party programme, to be adopted by the party’s five-yearly congress next February. Though Mr Gorbachev’s appointment on the death of Konstantin Chernenko had been widely expected the speed of his moves and his bold style have sent shock waves through the vast party bureaucracy, Soviet sources said. Since his acceptance speech on March 11, the new leader has been using direct language to declare war on inefficiency, corruption, waste and lethargy. His no-nonsense manner and distaste for showiness has been projected by the State media, which have cut back their usually frequent personal references to the party chief. In a small but telling innovation sure to have been widely noted, the leader’s portrait in last week’s May Day parade was no larger than those of other Politburo members.

Cracking the whip in a speech last month to the central commit-

tee, he promised the enforcement of order in every enterprise, every construction site.

He demonstrated his aim to make sure improvements reached ordinary people by paying impromptu visits to Moscow factories and dropping in on the home of a working family. He also caused alarm among managers by announcing there would be no downward revision of unfulfilled plan targets this year, a traditional practice as the country nears the end of the five-year plan period

In stressing discipline and efficiency, Mr Gorbachev is following in the footsteps of Yuri Andropov, who succeeded Leonid Brezhnev as party leader late in 1982 and began grooming the younger man as an eventual successor. Mr Gorbachev has shown he has the clout to carry through what age and illness prevented Mr Andropov from doing before he died in February, 1984, to be succeeded by Mr Chernenko. In a swift move last month, he promoted three close associates, all of them groomed by Mr Andropov, to the Politburo. The three — Viktor Chebrikov, chief of the K.G.B. security apparatus, an economic specialist, Nikolai Rykhkov, and the party personnel chief, Yegor Ligachev — are expected to play a major role in implementing Mr Gorbachev’s policies. Their presence in the 13-man Politburo has ensured Mr Gorbachev a working majority, weakening the already dwindling influence of the “old guard” promoted under Mr Brezhnev.

Analysts say that the next step is likely to be the removal of elderly figures like the Moscow party chief, Viktor Grishin, and the Prime Minister, Nikolai Tikhonov, who is 80 this month.

This could begin at a party plenum next month before a session of the Supreme Soviet, or legislature, which is expected to appoint Mr Gorbachev the Head of State.

Parallel to changes in the Kremlin, the party’s personnel department, headed by Mr Ligachev, is pushing through a drive to weed out dead wood from the regional party leadership.

Western officials, though impressed by Mr Gorbachev’s intelligence, say he has yet to demon-

strate the flexibility many had expected. Although he has called for better relations with Washington, his statements have reiterated longstanding Kremlin charges against the United States and the West. Some diplomats in Moscow are convinced that Mr Gorbachev will present a formidable challenge to the West by presenting Soviet positions in a more credible and

sophisticated light. An illustration of this was the speed with which he moved last month to blame Washington for

the lack of progress at the talks in Geneva on space and nuclear weapons. Mr Gorbachev also appears to be succeeding in imposing his authority on Moscow’s Eastern bloc allies, some of whom showed signs of dissent in past years of weak Kremlin leadership. In his only foreign trip so far, Mr Gorbachev met six allied

leaders in Poland last month to prolong for 20 years the treaty of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact Alliance.