… BEREZOVSKY ACCUSES SPECIAL SERVICES OF HIGH CRIMES.

Boris Berezovsky also called in his press conference yesterday for a radical restructuring of Russia’s special services, charging that they are under Communist influence. He again claimed that the special services–specifically, a former head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Yeltsin’s former bodyguard–were behind the 1995 murder of television executive Vladislav Listiev. The contract-style murder occurred exactly four years ago yesterday. Some media have linked Berezovsky with it. After Listiev was appointed general director of Russian Public Television, which Berezovsky is said to control, Listiev announced a moratorium on advertising on the channel, which he said had been sold in a corrupt manner, and vowed to clean up.

Berezovsky yesterday repeated his story that just prior to Listiev’s murder, several Interior Ministry officials brought to him an organized crime representative who promised to call off an assassination attempt against Berezovsky in return for a large sum of money. Berezovsky said that on February 28, 1995–a day before Listiev’s murder–he handed the money over to the mafia representative, but recorded the event. “Had I not recorded this on video and cassette, I am sure that I would have been charged with the murder of Vlad Listiev,” he said yesterday. Berezovsky accused the special services of being behind Listiev’s murder, specifically Mikhail Barsukov, who headed the Federal Security Service at the time of Listiev’s murder, and Aleksandr Korzhakov, who headed the Presidential Security Service (Russian agencies, March 1).

Officials of the Prosecutor General’s Office said yesterday that they know who ordered Listiev’s murder and who carried it out, but need to be sure they have enough evidence before taking it to court. Meanwhile, Mikhail Barsukov, who now works in Yeltsin’s advisory Security Council, called Berezovsky’s accusations against him “absurd” and said he would sue the CIS executive secretary (Russian agencies, March 1).

DUMA DEPUTY CHARGES THAT FIMACO WAS USED FOR ILLEGAL T-BILL TRADES.