In 1990, he was appointed the leader of a working group of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR in the Western Group of Forces, Germany. He was soon discharged from that position following a complaint from the Germans of overzealous efforts to register to the Soviet Union, real estate vacated by the Russian Military in Germany. Following his discharge, Yakobovskiy was sent to Basel, Switzerland as the representative of Agrokhim (the former USSR Ministry of Mineral Fertilizers). After the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, he moved to Canada.