In 1972, he completed higher level courses at the Voroshilov Academy of the General Staff of the USSR.

From 1980–1984, he advised the Syrian Army as part of the Group of Soviet Military Specialists in Syria (Russian: Группа советских военных специалистов в Сирии) during for the course of the 1982 Lebanon War.

During his time in Syria, he survived 2 attempts on his life, including an explosion at his headquarters in Damascus in October 1981.

[2][3] During his term as Deputy Head of Civil Defense of the USSR from 1984–1987, he oversaw the recovery process in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSRs.

He was also a member of the Presidium of the Coordination Council of the All-Russian public movement “People’s Patriotic Union of Russia”.