
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 1, 1990                   TAG: 9007010067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short

EX-KGB SPY SPEAKS OUT, IS CENSURED

A former KGB counterintelligence chief has been stripped of his military rank and decorations after telling foreign and Soviet media that the spy agency should be abolished, Tass said Saturday.

Oleg Kalugin, a major-general and top spy in the United States during the 1960s, said in interviews two weeks ago that he was hounded out of the KGB because of his reformist political views.

Kalugin, 55, spoke to foreign and Soviet journalists and appeared on Soviet television saying the KGB had too much power and should be disbanded.

Kalugin said KGB agents are still tapping telephones and infiltrating the Russian Orthodox Church and labor unions.

Kalugin, a member of the Democratic Platform reform movement, said he was drummed out of the intelligence agency this year after being demoted to reserve status because of his reformist leanings.

Kalugin said he was seeking publicity, not only to speak out on political issues, but partly to protect himself from repercussions for his reformist views.

The KGB said in a news release Kalugin was trying to launch a political career and was using the domestic and foreign media to become a public figure.

Kalugin said he worked as a spy in the United States from 1958-70, first under the cover of a Radio Moscow correspondent, then as a first secretary in the Soviet Embassy in Washington.

Kalugin said he returned to the foreign counterintelligence department in Moscow, and led it for seven years before he was demoted for speaking out in favor of reforms.

by CNB