A former KGB counterintelligence chief has been stripped of his military rank and decortions after telling foreign and Soviet media that the spy agency should be abolished, Tass said Saturday. Oleg Kalugin, a major-general and top spy in the United States during the 1960s, said in interviews two weeks ago that he was hounded out of the KGB because of his reformist political views. Kalugin, 55, spoke to foreign and Soviet journalists and appeared on Soviet television saying the KGB had too much power and should be disbanded. ``By decision of the president of the U.S.S.R., at the request of the KGB, Oleg Kalugin was deprived of all state decorations for actions compromising the honor and dignity of the state security organs,'' the state news agency said. ``By decision of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R., he was deprived of his military rank of major-general (reserve) for the same actions,'' it said. Tass said he also was stripped of all departmental decorations. Kalugin said KGB agents are still tapping telephones, infiltrating the Russian Orthodox Church and labor unions, and carrying out other actions. Kalugin, a member of the Democratic Platform reform movement, said he was drummed out of the intelligence agency this year after being demoted to reserve status because of his reformist leanings. Kalugin said he was seeking publicity, not only to speak out on political issues, but partly to protect himself from repercussions for his reformist views. ``The KGB has too much political power, and this way will remain a threat to democracy,'' he said. ``I would abolish the KGB as such.'' The KGB said in a news release Kalugin was trying to launch a political career and was using the domestic and foreign media to become a public figure. ``Kalugin's personality is well known to us. His pronouncements, with gross distortions and hostile remarks about the activity of the present state security agencies, logically follow from his acts and conduct during his work with the KGB agencies,'' the KGB said. The former agent, who speaks English well, said he worked as an spy in the United States from 1958-70, first under the cover of a Radio Moscow correspondent, then as a first secretary in the Soviet Embassy in Washington. Kalugin said he returned to the foreign counterintelligence department in Moscow, and led it for seven years before he was demoted for speaking out in favor of reforms.
