World Notes Soviet Union

When Eduard Shevardnadze abruptly resigned as Soviet Foreign Minister last December, warning of a coming dictatorship, he provoked widespread shock and alarm. His reappointment last week brought an international sigh of relief.

Since joining the resistance to the putsch attempt in August, Shevardnadze has been watching from the sidelines as the power of the central government has drained away to the ascendant republics. His decision to rejoin Mikhail Gorbachev is likely to lend credibility to the Soviet President's efforts to reconstruct a union and to solicit Western aid for the ailing economy.

But Shevardnadze's resumed role will be far from what it was before. He will have to devote much of his time to resolving disputes with the republics rather than globe-trotting. Shevardnadze was hardly upbeat. "There is no reason for congratulations," he told the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. "The time has come when the fate is being decided not just of our country, but of peace on our planet."