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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 7, 1995                   TAG: 9504070071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short

KGB SUCCESSOR GIVEN NEW NAME, MORE POWERS

The post-Soviet version of the KGB has a new name and new powers under a law just signed by President Boris Yeltsin.

A spokesman for Russia's Federal Counterintelligence Service said the agency needed a new name because it now does much more than just spy.

``We have been gradually given other tasks such as fighting organized crime and gangs, contraband and corruption, fascist elements,'' Maj. Gen. Alexander Mikhailov said Thursday.

He said Yeltsin signed a bill Monday renaming the agency the Federal Security Service and giving it sweeping new powers.

The Federal Security Service can now run its own prison system, infiltrate foreign organizations or organized crime, create front enterprises and demand information from private companies. It also now controls all state secrets and provides security for the armed forces and the federal government, the Interfax news agency said.

- Associated Press

by CNB