The Politburo reserved the harshest discipline for the middle ranks of the apparat. Meshkov, deputy head of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building, and Shasharin, the deputy minister responsible for nuclear power at the Ministry of Energy, together with the deputy head of the nuclear design bureau, NIKIET, were all dismissed from their posts. Viktor Brukhanov was stripped of his Party membership and put on a plane back to Kiev in disgrace.
