The agents say the former KGB now harbours kidnappers,

killers and extortionists

Eight serving officers of the Russian intelligence

service, the FSB, have alleged that instead of

fighting crime, the organisation has become

involved in such activities as extortion, terrorism,

hostage-taking and contract killing.

At a press conference in Moscow,

one of the officers, Lieutenant

Colonel Alexander Litvinenko, said

he had been threatened after

refusing to carry out an order to

murder one of the country's most

powerful men, the business

magnate, Boris Berezovsky.

"We were told frankly that we would first be

dismissed from the service and then suffocated

like puppies," he said.

Later he was attacked outside his home.

Another ordinary day

"A deputy head of the department told me: You

prevented patriots from killing a Jew who has

robbed half of the nation."

He said the plot was "not an exceptional event in

the life of the FSB".

Certain senior officials he said had used the FSB

"for their own private political and material

purposes, to settle accounts with undesirable

persons, to carry out private political and criminal

orders for a fee and sometimes simply as an

instrument to earn money."

Mr Litivenko said there was a need for "a public

committee to defend those officers who want to

defend their rights."

On Friday, Mr Berezovsky wrote an open letter in a

Russian newspaper to the head of the intelligence

service, demanding that the accusations be given

a proper hearing.

The military prosecutor's office is now

investigating.

'Insulting' allegations

As to the other allegations, the head of the FSB,

Vladimir Putin, has dismissed them as insulting

and said Mr Berezovsky was trying to use the

press to influence the investigation.

He has also warned that if the court finds in its

favour, the FSB might bring counter-charges

against the officers.

On Tuesday ORT television, the large state-owned

channel in which Berezovsky has an influential

stake, led with extracts from an interview with the

officers which it said was filmed in the middle of

the night.

"It's too soon to show the full interview right now,"

said the presenter. "We'll show the full discussion

only if something happens to one of the

participants in our discussion."

Whatever the outcome, BBC Moscow

Correspondent Robert Parsons says few

Russians will be surprised by the accusations.

The FSB is the successor to the Soviet KGB with

many officers being former members of the KGB

there is little sympathy in the organisation for the

political and economic reforms of the last few

years.

But our correspondent says they may now have

gone too far and with the involvement of so

powerful a man as Mr Berezovsky the case has all

the makings of a major scandal.

bbc 18 nov 98 00h45 GMT