KGB Barred From Picking Diplomats
Foreign Minister Boris D. Pankin said the KGB secret police will be barred from selecting personnel for diplomatic posts.
In a weekend interview with the independent news agency Interfax, Pankin said the KGB “must not be engaged in forming the personnel” and that he wants to put a stop to the deployment of spies in diplomatic guise.
That would put him on a collision course with the new KGB chief, Vadim V. Bakatin, who has said the agency will continue sending intelligence officers to work abroad as journalists and diplomats.
According to Pankin, the size of Soviet trade missions abroad, which have also served as KGB covers, will be reduced.
Pankin said individual republics will be allowed to send their diplomats to existing Soviet embassies and consulates.
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