…PROMPTING CONCERNS OVER A RECONSTRUCTED KGB.

For many in the west, the appointment of a top intelligence official to the post of Russian foreign minister is a disquieting signal. Yabloko’s Vladimir Lukin raised another troubling consideration January 9 when he speculated that Primakov’s appointment could be part of a larger plan to rebuild the Soviet-era KGB. The latter organization was split into constituent foreign and domestic components following the dissolution of the USSR. (9) Such an hypothesis is presumably based on the reorganizations that have taken place over the past six months in the Russian Presidential Security Service, the Federal Security Service (responsible for internal security), and several lesser agencies, with the apparent goal of consolidating authority for intelligence activities in the office of the Russian president. The inclusion of foreign intelligence under the same authority would be a major step toward recreation of the KGB.

Dissension In Moscow Over Dagestan Incident.