RL 301/91 August 23, 1991 GORBACHEV APPOINTS TEMPORARY HEADS OF ARMY, KGB, AND MVD Stephen Foye & Alexander Rahr Following his release from captivity on August 21, President Mikhail Gorbachev named three conservatives to temporarily head the USSR's defense and security agencies. The three lasted only twenty-four hours before being fired by Russian President Boris El'tsin on August 23. On August 22, in an attempt to quickly reassert his authority over the all-Union ministries on his return to Moscow, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev appointed temporary heads of the USSR Defense Ministry, the USSR KGB, and the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. All three positions had become vacant as a result of arrests (and one suicide) following the failed coup d'etat of August 19-21. While the appointments were overturned by RSFSR President Boris El'tsin only twenty-four hours later, they nevertheless demonstrate the extent to which Gorbachev initially failed to understand the momentous changes that had taken place during his captivity in the Crimea. All three of his appointees--Army General Mikhail Moiseev as defense minister, Leonid Shebarshin as chairman of the KGB, and Vasilii Trushin as minister of internal affairs--were clearly identifiable as members of the old guard. Gorbachev's choice of Mikhail Moiseev raised eyebrows in the Soviet Union and abroad. Plucked from the Far Eastern Military District in late 1988 to assume the prestigious post of chief of the General Staff of the Soviet armed forces, the fifty-two-year-old Moiseev was at the time viewed as a protege of then Defense Minister Dmitrii Yazov and as a pro-Gorbachev reformer with few ties to the old guard. His appointment followed closely on the heels of Gorbachev's announcement at the United Nations that the Soviet Union would unilaterally reduce its forces by 500,000 men. It appeared, therefore, that Moiseev would oversee Gorbachev's program of domestic military restructuring. In addition, the appointment of the relatively unknown Moiseev, who was not considered to be a leading military theorist, appeared to signal a downgrading of the position of chief of the General Staff and a lessening of its influence at home and abroad, particularly when viewed in conjunction with the high-profile role played by Moiseev's predecessor, Marshal Sergei Akhromeev. Since that time, however, Moiseev has emerged as an outspoken opponent of Gorbachev's domestic reform policies and has been especially critical of independence movements in the non-Russian republics. He has also criticized the consequences of Gorbachev's "new thinking" in foreign policy, although, particularly of late, he has participated extensively in arms control negotiations with the United States and appears to be a proponent of the process. After the rise of conservative forces late last year, Moiseev appeared to distance himself somewhat from the more militant hard-liners in the Soviet High Command, including Defense Minister Yazov, and he was apparently more willing than many military leaders to work with republican governments on defense matters. He nevertheless joined with Yazov in efforts to slow the pace of military reform and chaired the Defense Ministry commission that prepared a conservative military reform plan that is currently being considered by the USSR parliament. In 1989, he was elected to the USSR Congress of People's Deputies. US intelligence sources initially believed that Moiseev was not directly involved in the recent coup attempt, but that view has subsequently been undermined by rumors circulating in the Soviet Union. The fact that on August 23 he was not only relieved as acting defense minister but was also replaced as chief of the General Staff makes it clear that, even if he was not directly involved, he failed to take a firm stand against the coup conspirators. Conservatives Briefly Head KGB and MVD Gorbachev's initial choice for the post of acting KGB chairman was Leonid Shebarshin--a longtime associate of former KGB head Vladimir Kryuchkov. In fact, Shebarshin replaced Kryuchkov as head of the First Administration of the KGB, which is responsible for foreign espionage, in October, 1988, when Kryuchkov took over as KGB chairman. Unlike other KGB leaders, Shebarshin appeared in public only a couple of times. On April 22, 1990, he gave an extensive interview to Pravda in which he described the tasks of his administration under perestroika. In the interview, he stated that his first priority was to establish favorable structures and conditions for Soviet foreign trade and to obtain information about Western economic strategy towards the Soviet Union. Asked about his background, he gave the following information: My career is typical of that of a member of the KGB First Main Administration. I studied at an institute, had a civilian job, joined the KGB intelligence school, and then started working in KGB headquarters and abroad. The well-known KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky described Shebarshin in his recently published book on the Soviet security service, KGB. According to Gordievsky, Shebarshin began his career, like Kryuchkov, in the USSR Foreign Ministry. He then worked as an agent for the KGB in several Middle Eastern and Southern Asian countries, including Pakistan, India, and Iran. He was the KGB's main resident in New Delhi from 1975-77 and in Teheran from 1979-83. The Politburo, and especially former KGB Chairman Yurii Andropov, were reportedly impressed by Shebarshin's reports from the Middle East and paid close attention to his analyses of the situation in that part of the world. In 1983, however, Shebarshin was apparently declared persona non grata and expelled from Iran after his status as a KGB agent was revealed. From Gorbachev's point of view, Shebarshin--as head of the foreign branch of the KGB--probably appeared less likely to have been compromised by the coup attempt than his colleagues working in the KGB's internal services. He may thus have viewed Shebarshin as a person better suited to oversee the agency until further, and more permanent, personnel changes were enacted. Vasilii Trushin, named by Gorbachev to head the Ministry of Internal Affairs, also appears to be a representative of the old guard. In the early 1960s, he made his career in the Moscow City Party Committee and was probably close to former Moscow Party leader Viktor Grishin. He was proposed as a candidate for the position of first secretary of the Russian Communist Party in 1990, but the most obvious indication of his conservative leanings was the fact that El'tsin, upon being elected head of the Russian parliament in the summer of 1990, immediately replaced him as head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, a position he had held since the previous year. Since 1990, Trushin has served as USSR deputy minister of internal affairs. In November of 1990, at a time when hard-liners in general were increasing their political influence, he was appointed to head the Soviet Interpol Bureau.