Same Habit, Same Hand

Washingtonians on 16th Street could set their watches by Russian Charge d'Affaires Nikolai Vassilievitch Novikov. It was exactly 9:10 every morning when he strode through the entrance of the Soviet Embassy. Last week, when he assumed the title of ambassador, he was still on the dot.

He succeeded a man whose perambulating habits were less certain: Andrei Gromyko, who became permanent Soviet representative on the U.N. Security Council.

Like most Soviet diplomats, Ambassador Novikov, 43, was little known outside the marsupial pouch of the Kremlin. He had first emerged in 1943, as minister to Egypt. While in Cairo he negotiated Soviet recognition of new regimes in Syria and Lebanon after junketing incognito through the Levant. An occasional concertgoer with his handsome wife, Lydia Ivanovna, he has an embassy reputation as an expert at chess.

Novikov is regarded by colleagues as more self-confident and suave than his predecessor. But the change in ambassadors will mean little: the notes delivered to the State Department will still be written in Moscow.