News In Brief

Demoted Soviet chief of staff reported to be academy head

A US expert on Soviet affairs says Marshal Nikolai V. Ogarkov, the former Soviet general chief of staff who was replaced without explanation earlier this month, is being assigned to head a military academy. The reassignment as head of the Academy of General Staff would be a demotion for Marshal Ogarkov.

The Sept. 6 announcement of his removal as chief of the general staff, a post he had held for seven years, came as a surprise to Western experts on the Soviet military, who had considered him a strong contender to succeed 75-year-old Defense Minister Dmitri F. Ustinov.