Word: kgb
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Some of the conspirators, notably Interior Minister Boris Pugo (the apparent suicide), Defense Minister Dmitri Yazov and KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov, are said to have begun plotting in December 1990. If so, eight months later they still had not organized the most obvious, and essential, opening moves: arresting, or preferably killing, potential opponents (some supporters of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev operated unmolested from a Kremlin office almost next door to Yanayev's); assuring themselves of the loyalty of military units and then moving them into position to crush resistance speedily (army and KGB units flatly refused to storm the White...
...What about the KGB...
...wouldn't worry about them. The intelligence service has been split ((into foreign and domestic branches)) so that it operates as a normal agency in any civilized state. The border guards have been taken out of the structure. So have communication facilities. KGB chief Vadim Bakatin heads the counterintelligence service, but its functions are entirely different now. Perhaps there are individuals there who could cause trouble, but not the organization as such...
...estimated 400 ex-agents who have not yet been uncovered working now for the KGB or another spy service...
...Where that 400 figure comes from is a mystery to me. But I can say that I did not pass on a single one to the KGB, nor did my successor. The head of the intelligence service in the Soviet Union would not want to continue any form of contact. The risk would be too great. One cannot rule out, however, that some adventurers might try to profit from their knowledge...