RUSSIAN AGENCIES IN POWER STRUGGLE

MOSCOW -- Tensions within the Kremlin ahead of the departure of
President Vladimir Putin have turned into a public battle among
Russia's secretive security interests.

Mr. Putin's top drug fighter offered a look yesterday into the kind
of dispute that is normally suppressed by the Kremlin. He warned in
an open letter that the security-agency battle, which has led to
corruption charges and arrests, could weaken the cadre that rules
Russia and undermine the country.

Mr. Cherkesov's appeal followed last week's arrests of senior
officers of his Federal Drug Control Service by agents of the Federal
Security Service, or FSB, the main successor to the KGB. Moscow
newspapers described the arrests as part of a long-running rivalry
between Kremlin security-service elites, pitting Mr. Cherkesov
against Mr. Putin's powerful deputy chief of staff, Igor Sechin, and
other members of Mr. Putin's inner circle.

In a defense of his agency, Mr. Cherkesov described the network of
current and former secret-service officers as a kind of corporation
that had helped rescue Russia from collapse since Mr. Putin came to
power. Now the corporation was under threat, he said. "Experts and
journalists are already talking about a 'war of groups' inside the
secret services," he wrote.

Analysts have worried that the authoritarian power structure set up
by Mr. Putin could turn brittle when he tries to hand power to a
successor at the end of his presidential term in March. Mr. Putin
said last week that he may stay on as prime minister, a move his
allies said could mean Mr. Putin will practically remain in power.
But others say the infighting among his security-service cadre means
Mr. Putin's inner circle still expects a power vacuum -- and already
are positioning themselves for his departure.

"The wars between the elites have come to the surface," said
Stanislav Belkovsky, a Moscow political analyst. "Not everyone is
convinced that Putin can stay in power."

Mr. Cherkesov's drug-control agency had lately been investigating the
Moscow furniture store Tri Kita, or Three Whales, which had been
accused of evading millions of dollars in import duties. Russian
media have alleged that some senior FSB officials were involved in
the business.

Last week, the FSB struck back at the drug-control service and
arrested Alexander Bulbov, a general who was widely described as Mr.
Cherkesov's right-hand man, as he returned to Moscow from a business
trip. Mr. Bulbov, along with another top officer who was arrested,
had been handling the Tri Kita investigation.

Mr. Bulbov has been accused of illegally tapping phones, even though
the drug-control service is among the security agencies with the
authority to do so as part of official investigations.

Mr. Cherkesov didn't mention any names in his letter, but said the
security services were being undermined by members who were
preoccupied with making money. He wrote that infighting also could
erode public respect and threaten the nation's stability.

"It would be hard to explain to people why they need to respect those
who don't observe norms and get bogged down in turf battles," he wrote.