New Foreign Minister Boris D. Pankin has pledged to continue steering the Soviet Union "into the world of civilized states," but his role may be diminished by the emergence of independent republics.
A shift in Soviet foreign policy could emerge Sunday, when British Prime Minister John Major becomes the first Western government leader to visit Moscow since the coup. Major also plans talks with Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin.The little-known Pankin, previously the Soviet ambassador to Czechoslovakia, was appointed Wednesday apparently in large part because he was the only Soviet envoy publicly to condemn the coup against President Mikhail Gorbachev as it unfolded.
Gorbachev has stressed loyalty in appointing a new Cabinet of Ministers, dissolved after the coup collapsed. He fired Foreign Minister Alexander Bess-mertnykh for remaining silent until the end of the overthrow.
Bessmertnykh has insisted he did not follow orders of coup leaders and spent the three days at his office working "in the defense of national interests of our country."
But Pankin told Soviet television in an interview broadcast early Friday that, while in Prague, he received at least one document signed by Bessmertnykh ordering him to obey the coup committee. Other orders were signed by Deputy Foreign Minister Yuli Kvitsinsky, he said.
Pankin is not a professional foreign service officer, and his early career revolved around the Communist youth organization, the Komsomol. He was posted to Prague to sort out relations with the democratic government that took power there in 1989.
Pankin was mildly critical of Gorbachev and called for dismemberment of the KGB, in an interview made before his appointment and published Thursday by the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet of Stockholm, where he once was ambassador.
As foreign minister, Pankin told Soviet television, he will stick to the line "formulated by the lawful leadership of the country. And of course healing those most heavy wounds which were inflicted on our foreign policy by the putsch."