Sununu, Shevardnadze Discuss Managerial Issues

White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu is in the Soviet Union to swap managerial pointers with Kremlin leaders.

Sununu, known for his stay-in-touch management style, met with Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze on Tuesday to discuss plans for setting up a mechanism by which the superpowers can share advice on organizing state agencies, the official news agency Tass reported.

“I’m a great believer that, whenever you talk shop with somebody, you can learn,” Sununu had said before leaving Washington.

Sununu, who has not met with reporters since he arrived here Monday, is in the second half of an exchange between himself and the man who is roughly his counterpart in the Kremlin, Mikhail S. Shkabardnya, who runs the staff at the Soviet Council of Ministers, or cabinet.

Shkabardnya and his aides visited the White House during the summit meeting in June. They expressed interest in the nuts and bolts of the Washington political machine, such as how the federal executive and legislative branches interact and how President Bush’s schedule is prepared.

Meanwhile, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev continued to fine-tune his leadership team. On Tuesday, he named the editor in chief of the progressive New Times weekly, Vitaly Ignatenko, to be his press secretary.

Arkady A. Maslennikov, who had been Gorbachev’s spokesman, was appointed spokesman for Anatoly I. Lukyanov, chairman of the Soviet parliament, Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov said.