KGB POWER GROWS AS GORBACHEV GIVES IT CONTROL OF RADIO AND TV

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100610001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2011
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 19, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100610001-6 TAT
WASHINGTON TIMES
19 December 1985
KGB power grows as Gorbachev
gives it control of radio and TV
i
By Michael J. Bonafield
THE WASHINGTON TIMES FOREIGN SERVICE
GENEVA -The power and influ-
ence of the KGB in the Soviet gov-
ernmentcontinues to grow in a "sub-
tle, relentless fashion;' say Western
observers, who point to the an-
nouncement in Moscow that a secret
police official has been named to run
the country's important television
and radio conglomerate.
Early this week, Tass, the Soviet
news agency, confirmed that Alex-
ander Aksenov, a senior KGB offi-
cer, had been tapped by party leader
Mikhail Gorbachev to head the pow-
erful SCTRB state committee on
television and radio broadcasting.
Mr. Aksenov, 57, replaces 73-year-
old Sergei Lapin, who Tass said is
retiring.
The television and radio
broadcasting committee is the
linchpin that holds the Soviet
Union's enormous telecommunica-
tions operations together.
In addition to broadcast facilities
in all of the major cities, the commit-
tee oversees the administration of
Novosti, the giant news combine that
was founded by the KGB, and it con-
trols all content of Soviet radio and
television.
Radio Moscow, the ubiquitous
mouthpiece of Soviet propaganda
that broadcasts to every corner of
the world in more than 100 lan-
guages and dialects, is also run by
Mr. Aksenov's organization.
"There is no question but that the
power of the KGB has been en-
hanced by [Mr. Aksenov's] ap-
pointment;' said Elizabeth Teague,
an expert on Soviet domestic politi-
cal affairs at Radio Liberty in Mu-
nich, West Germany.
"It seems that Mr. Gorbachev is
bringing back a lot of people who
were enemies of [the late president
Leonid] Brezhnev, and that includes
a number of KGB personnel;' she
said.
"It appears to be a case of `My
enemy's enemies are my friends: "
In the nine months that have
passed since Mr. Gorbachev as-
sumed power, the Soviet leadership
has undergone major personnel
changes.
Mr. Gorbachev's "purge" has been
aimed primarily at the old Brezhnev
cadres in the party apparatus and
the government, but increasingly
the replacements have come from
the Committee for State Security, or
KGB.
Since March, for example, the rul-
ing Politburo has gained four new
members- Viktor Chebrikov, Yegor
Ligachev, Nikolai Ryzhkov and
Eduard Shevardnadze - and two
new candidate, or non-voting, mem-
bers -Sergei Sokolov and Nikolai
'I'alyzin.
With the exception of Messrs.
Ligachev and Ryzhkov, all have
backgrounds in the secret police ap-
paratus.
Indeed, Mr. Chebrikov is director
of the KGB.
An indication of the KGB's re-
newed prestige under Mr. Gorba-
chev's rule came last month when
Mr Chebrikov was selected to give
the important "Revolution Day"
speech commemorating the Bolshe-
vik coup de main in 1917.
The last time a master of the KGB
was chosen for this high honor was
during the Stalin years, when Lav-
renti Beria gave the keynote ad-
dress.
Mr Chebrikov's predecessor as
director of the KGB, Vitali Fedor-
chuk, now runs the powerful Min-
istry of Internal Affairs, or MVD.
Like the KGB, which controls the
paramilitary border guards and
commands elite security troops, the
MVD directs the regular police and
militia, the urban fire-fighting force,
and also has uniformed troops of its
own.
The MVD also operates the
forced-labor camps and colonies.
that make up the infamous "gulag
archipelago," whose inmates num-
ber 4 million, and the vast civil-
registry system that keeps tabs on
the private lives of the population.
In addition to Mr Aksenov, an-
otherKGB officer has recently risen
to prominent position within the gov-
ernment bureaucracy.
n Katushev, who, like
Konstant
Mr. Aksenov, is a senior secret police
officer, was recently picked to head
the extremely important Ministry of
Foreign Trade, an agency critical to
the success of Mr. Gorbachev's am-
bitious plans to revitalize the econ-
omy.
Mr. Katushev was last posted to
Moscow's embassy in Havana, and
before that he occupied a pivotal job
on the Secretariat of the Central
Committee, which presides over the
day-to-day operations of the Soviet
government.
Mr. Gorbachev has, in the course
of recasting the government and
party leadership in his own mold,
completely overhauled the Council
of Ministers, the administrative
body that sits atop the country's
truly huge governing bureaucracy.
Of the 13 men who hold the chief
executive positions in the 103-man
council, six were appointed by Mr.
Gorbachev, including the chairman,
Mr. Ryzhkov
Another two deputy chairmen
have KGB backgrounds. They both
were appointed by Mr. Gorbachev's
predecessor, Konstantin Chernenko,
but they rose through the bu-
reaucracy under the patronage of
Yuri Andropov, who for 15 years was
chief of the KGB before becoming
party leader on the death of Mr.
Brezhnev in November 1982
"It will be interesting to observe
how Ryzhkov's new 'KGB' team
comes to grips with the country's
staggering economic problems,"
said another Soviet analyst in West-
ern Europe.
In addition to the key council of
ministers and a number of separate
and equally important ministries,
Mr. Gorbachev has replaced 22 min-
isterial chiefs and 30 first secre-
taries of "oblast;' or regional, and
"krai;' or territorial, party commit-
tees. People in these jobs nominally
fulfill the role governors do in the
U.S. political structure.
At the same time, he has ap-
pointed seven new heads of de-
partments of the Communist Party
Central Committee.
When the 27th Party Congress
convenes in February 1986,a com-
pletely new Central Committee will
STAT
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 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100610001-6
2,
be elected. Mr. Gorbachev is ex-
pected, according to many observ-
ers, to draw heavily upon the admin-
istrative ranks of the KGB for
personnel to fill the slots he has not
already attended to.
At present, the KGB, MVD and
the military account for 26 members
of the 219-strong Central Commit-
tee. Four years ago, as Mr. Brezhnev
was in the final months of his life, the
security-military apparatus counted
only 19 Central Committee mem-
bers.
"The KGB has penetrated the
government in a very subtle, relent-
less fashion;' said one U.S. observer
here, "largely as a result of Andro-
pov's influence over Gorbachev"
"When the next Party Congress
finishes its business in February," he
said, "don't be surprised if you count
30 or more KGB graduates among
the Central Committee members:'
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100610001-6