KGB in president`s bad books :: Charter'97 :: News

President relies on upstart intelligence agencies out of fear the KGB is telling tales to Moscow.

The KGB - which once had a monopoly over intelligence-gathering as well as repression - is under scrutiny in Belarus because the president does not believe it`s doing its job properly.

President Alexander Lukashenko has gradually become estranged from his security service, which unlike its counterparts in most other former Soviet republics retains the old name KGB, or Committee for State Security. He has come to rely instead on the Presidential Security Service and a number of other recently-created bodies that perform intelligence functions.

Analysts say one reason for this may be that Lukashenko feels the organization has remained too friendly with Moscow, with which his own relations have grown increasingly strained.

In December, he gave the agency a public dressing-down.

"As head of state, I don`t receive from the KGB the objective, reliable and -especially important - timely information that is necessary for making important political, military, diplomatic, social and economic decisions," he said.

His criticism followed a comprehensive inspection of the security service – the first of its kind since Belarus became independent.

Valery Karbalevich of Strategia, a think-tank in Minsk, told IWPR that both the review and Lukashenko`s subsequent criticism were prompted by a sense that the president cannot completely on his main security agency.

According to Karbalevich, Lukashenko is well aware that the Belarusian KGB still has close ties to the Russian Federal Security Service, FSB, and suspects it of leaking information to Moscow.

In recent negotiations over gas supplies and monetary union, there has been a sense that the Kremlin is always one step ahead, leaving Minsk struggling to defend its position.

The KGB has denied that it is a source of leaks.

But a senior officer serving at KGB headquarters in Minsk - speaking to IWPR on condition of anonymity - accepted that his agency has much stronger links with the FSB than it does with Lukashenko`s Presidential Security Service.

A former KGB colonel, Alexander Mushta, says political leaders are often unhappy with the intelligence material they get because it often fails to provide them with policy recommendations. And from the secret servicemen`s point of view, the quality of intelligence can be compromised when they have to tailor reports to suit the government line.

The president`s comment that he gets much of his intelligence from sources outside the KGB caused a sensation in Belarus.

"Luckily I decided not to rely just on one institution, and created something of a reserve ahead of time, so as to have information about the situation inside and outside the country," he said.

The admission came as no surprise to Mushta, who told IWPR that there are three organisations now competing with the KGB as sources of intelligence for Lukashenko.

First is the National Security Council, which developed an intelligence-gathering department when it was headed by Viktor Sheiman, one of Lukashenko`s closest associates.

Then there is the Presidential Security Service, a mini-KGB which provides Lukashenko`s security guards.

According to Mushta, Sheiman went on to set up a third information service, as part of the prosecution service, when he became chief prosecutor at the end of 2002.

Add to this the intelligence officers of the army and border guards, and it becomes clear that Lukashenko has multiple sources of information.

Security insiders and analysts say that these agencies are engaged in an intense struggle for influence. There is little or no communication between them, and IWPR`s source at KGB headquarters described them as fierce rivals.

The Presidential Security Service has better access to Lukashenko and can get a document onto his desk more quickly - but it lacks the KGB`s advantages of a countrywide network and decades of experience.

An official spokesman for the KGB, Alexander Bazanov, and the anonymous source both agreed that - despite the public castigation - Lukashenko has no plans to reform the KGB, or dismantle it. Instead, they believe it is merely an attempt to show who is boss.