Soviets Switch Negotiators

WASHINGTON — The Soviet Union is removing Deputy Foreign Minister Yuli Vorontsov from his job as chief negotiator with the United States on nuclear arms control and replacing him with a veteran deputy, Alexei Obukhov, a senior U.S. official said today.

This frees Vorontsov, who is one of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s chief trouble-shooters, to concentrate on Afghanistan, from which Moscow has said it wants to withdraw its forces this year, and other regional issues. Obukhov is a seasoned negotiator who earned a master’s degree at the University of Chicago and is fluent in English.