Out of the Cold

A recent report describes how Russia's spies believe they are getting a raw deal:

Vladimir Zavershinsky, first deputy head of the SVR [Foreign Intelligence Service], hardly comes across as a staunch democrat. In the new book he attacks the fledging Russian parliament's attempts to establish control over the spies' activities after the collapse of Soviet rule.

"We got crushed by pointless parliamentary investigations, run by incomprehensible and, believe me, unprofessional commissions," he said in an interview published in the book.

He went on to savage the lack of support shown by Russia's democratic government for the authoritarian leaders of East Germany -- including Erich Mielke, the so-called "Master of Fear" who headed the Stasi intelligence service.

"They cravenly gave them up, basically threw them out of Russia, forgetting that they had been not only close allies, but also antifascists, heroes of our Soviet Union," he said.

And for some, the tentative steps toward openness have gone too far.

"I do not understand why these people talk about spies so much, it is totally wrong," said Valentin Velichko, head of the murky Veterans of Foreign Intelligence organization, which played a key if unexplained role in freeing Dutch hostage Arjan Erkel from captivity in the North Caucasus last year.

"There should be (legislative) control, because espionage is paid for by tax-payers, but the commission should be former agents, professionals who know how things should be," he said.