Soviets Oust 2 Top Defense Officials : Politburo Rebukes Military in Wake of Small Plane’s Flight to Red Square

MOSCOW —  Defense Minister Sergei L. Sokolov and the head of Soviet air defenses were removed Saturday after the Politburo denounced the military for allowing a teen-age West German pilot to fly a light plane from the Baltic to the heart of Moscow.

The Tass news agency said Sokolov, 75, was relieved of his duties in “connection with his retirement” and replaced by General of the Army Dmitri T. Yazov, 63.

The head of the air defense forces, Chief Marshal Alexander I. Koldunov, 63, was fired. He was accused of negligence and lack of control over his units.

The shuffle and the Politburo’s biting criticism revealed the Kremlin’s deep anger and embarrassment over the success of a pilot with only about 40 hours flying time that seemed to mock the Soviet Union’s vaunted air-defense system. One Western military expert here said the pilot “performed an incredible feat of airmanship” by apparently using only maps to reach Moscow.

Held Top Rank

The shuffle involved the three highest ranks of the army and air-defense force. Sokolov held the top rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. Koldunov ranked immediately below him as chief marshal of a service branch. Yazov, on the next lower step of the command structure, holds the top of four rankings of general.

One veteran Kremlin watcher called the shuffle “the most dramatic humiliation of the Soviet military by a political leader since Nikita Khrushchev threw Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov out of the defense ministry in 1957.”

The embarrassment was compounded by the pilot’s apparent innocent motive in undertaking the flight and the fact that it took place Thursday, a day set aside to honor border guards who are responsible, among other things, for protecting the Soviet Union from intruders.

‘Just Wanted to Talk’

“I just wanted to talk with Russians,” Mathias Rust, 19, of Hamburg, was quoted as saying after he landed, according to the mass-circulation West German newspaper Bild.

Bild, which reputedly has good sources in Moscow, said Rust made the comment in response to Soviet interrogators’ questions. Rust had startled guards with his daring landing, and it was some time before he was taken into custody. As he stepped from his plane, he gave out autographs to Soviet citizens.

Bild said Rust was asked why he flew to the Soviet capital secretly and outside internationally approved flight corridors.

“If I had asked for a regular flight path, I wouldn’t have had enough gas to reach Moscow,” Bild quoted Rust as saying.

Bild said the youth thought of little else but flying. It quoted his mother, Monika Rust, as saying:

“He’s such a dear. He’s never had a girlfriend. Flying has been his passion since he was very young.”

‘Negligence, Disorganization’

The Politburo, according to the Tass report, used such phrases as “negligence and disorganization,” “lack of required vigilance” and “major lapses” in condemning the failure to bring down the intruder. It declared that two Soviet fighter planes had intercepted the plane shortly after it entered Soviet airspace, but made no attempt to force it down.

After Rust landed, Western diplomats suggested that the Soviet military could have allowed Rust’s U.S.-built Cessna 172B passage to avoid a repetition of the negative publicity surrounding the shooting down of a South Korean airliner in September, 1983, killing all 269 on board. The Soviets contended that the Korean jetliner was involved in spying and had intruded into Soviet airspace in the Far East.

The Politburo statement confirmed the opinion of Western military attaches that Rust could not have escaped detection in flight over Soviet territory after entering Soviet airspace from the Gulf of Finland over Estonia.

The Politburo held a special meeting Saturday on the intrusion. Rust was taken into police custody after he buzzed Red Square three times at low altitude and landed his plane near the Kremlin Wall.

In his flight from Helsinki, Rust flew over 420 miles of Soviet territory before landing--without interference--next to the Kremlin, the center of Soviet power.

Extensive Defense System.

The West German also crossed through what the Pentagon has called the world’s most extensive air-defense system.

“It was established that the plane belonging to a Hamburg flying club was detected by radars of the anti-aircraft defenses when it was approaching the state border of the U.S.S.R.,” the Politburo said, according to Tass.

“Soviet fighter planes twice flew around the West German plane,” it said. The Soviet leadership said the air-defense forces command showed “intolerable unconcern and indecision about cutting short the flight of the violator plane without resorting to combat means.”

That fact, the Politburo said, “attests to serious shortcomings in organizing (the) alert for the protection of the airspace of the country, a lack of due vigilance and discipline, major dereliction of duty in the guidance of forces by the U.S.S.R. Defense Ministry.”

To Strengthen Ministry

The ruling body said the decision was taken to “strengthen the leadership of the U.S.S.R. Defense Ministry.”

Sokolov, who had been defense minister since December, 1984, was not mentioned by name in the statement. His retirement and replacement were announced by Tass in a separate one-paragraph dispatch.

Both Sokolov and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev were attending a Warsaw Pact meeting in East Berlin when Rust buzzed the Kremlin. They returned to Moscow on Friday.

The Politburo said Koldunov, head of the air defense forces, was fired “for negligence and lack of organization in cutting short the (plane’s flight), lack of due control over the actions of the anti-aircraft forces.”

Air Defense Chief Since 1978

He had served as chief of the Soviet air defense since July 26, 1978.

The Politburo statement and the announcement of Sokolov’s removal were read on the main evening television news program “Vremya” (Time), guaranteeing the news would be known to millions of people.

However, the statement did not mention that the flier had landed beside the Kremlin, indicating the Soviet leadership was sensitive about informing citizens that a foreign aircraft was able to fly all the way to the bastion of Soviet power.

Meanwhile, the West German Embassy here said Saturday it had been officially notified that Rust was being questioned by Soviet authorities. “We have been in contact with the Foreign Ministry here,” an embassy spokesman said. “They confirmed that he is in Soviet custody. We think we will be able to talk with him next week.”

Tass said the Soviet public prosecutor’s office has begun an investigation into the flight including the actions of Soviet officials and the responsibility of “the West German citizen.”

No Word on Charges

As of late Saturday, Soviet authorities had not said whether Rust would be charged, nor had they provided details of his detention.

Rust could face a severe penalty for violating Soviet law, according to some analysts. But some said the Soviet Union, whose image is changing under Gorbachev, might decide to let Rust off with a sharp reprimand.

His flying club in Hamburg has said he will lose his flying license and can forget his dream of becoming a professional pilot.

Rust could also face a bill of as much as $13,000 to ship the plane back to West Germany.

Sokolov, the dismissed defense minister, a soldier for more than half a century, made his way into the Kremlin from the front lines after joining the army in 1932.

Despite his appointment as defense minister, he never rose higher than non-voting membership on the Politburo, unlike his predecessor, Marshal Dmitri F. Ustinov, who was a full voting member.

Attended Military Academy

Sokolov graduated from the Military Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces in 1947, then attended the Military College of the General Staff. His other postwar service included command of a tank regiment, a mechanized division, chief of staff of an army district and commander of another, according to an official biography.

He became first deputy defense minister in April, 1967, and a full member of the Communist Party Central Committee in 1968.

He took on a high profile that year when the illness of Ustinov forced him to drop out of sight and presumably from his official duties. Sokolov became defense minister on Dec. 2, 1984, following Ustinov’s death.

His health had recently been the subject of widespread speculation. He missed the Revolution Day parade in Red Square last Nov. 7, regarded as a protocol must for the defense minister.

A Soviet official later said he had been ill.

World War II Service

Yazov, the new defense minister, has served with the Soviet army since 1941 and fought on the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts in World War II, Tass said in a brief biographical note.

He held various command and staff posts after the war, Tass said. For seven years, he was commander of troops of the Central Asian military district, and later of the Far Eastern military district.

He last served as deputy defense minister for personnel, Tass said.

Yazov, born in 1923, is also an alternate member of the Communist Party Central Committee and a deputy to the Supreme Soviet, the nation’s nominal parliament, Tass said.