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A step up for Soviet marshal, not down, military writer says

Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov, transferred from his job as chief of staff of the Soviet armed forces, has been promoted rather than demoted, an American military analyst said Wednesday.

Marshal Ogarkov had been picked to take overall command of Soviet forces in the Western theater, entrusting him with the actual conduct of any full-scale war with the West, defense consultant Youssef Bodansky wrote in Jane's Defense Weekly. In the meantime, he is now said to be heading the Moscow Voroshilov Academy for staff officers, and might be engaged in formulating a new generation of Soviet military strategy for the rest of the century, he added.