SECURITY SERVICE OFFICERS TO SERVE ABROAD.

Federal Security Service director Sergei Stepashin has submitted to Yeltsin a proposed statute for his organization, Moskovsky komsomolets reported April 29. Under its provisions, FSS operatives would serve in Russian embassies abroad. Two countries–the US and German–have already agreed to receive these officials, and a third–France–is expected to agree to do so soon. The paper suggested that this scheme did not represent empire building on Stepashin’s part; rather it said that he wanted to have some honorable posts to which he could dispatch those of his underlings he cannot now fire on his own.

The Politics of Protectionism.