Putin To Expand Russia's Spy Network

MOSCOW — President Putin is vowing to expand Russia's spy network to counter "imbalances" with America that include President Bush's plan to set up a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

The SVR, one of the intelligence services that replaced the Soviet Union's KGB, will increase its work, primarily through information gathering and analytical support, Mr. Putin told security officials in Moscow on Wednesday. "The international situation and internal political interests require the SVR to increase its capacity," Mr. Putin said, according to a transcript on the Kremlin Web site. "The growing imbalances aren't limited to conventional arms."

Russia's relations with America are strained over the plan to base 10 missile interceptors in Poland and radar installations in the Czech Republic. Mr. Putin, who rejects Mr. Bush's assertion that the system is aimed at defending Europe from a nuclear-armed Iran, earlier this month suspended Russian participation in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.

Mr. Putin offered Mr. Bush the use of a Russian radar base in Azerbaijan as an alternative to the Czech and Polish sites when they met at the Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, last month.

Russia threatened to deploy missiles in its western exclave of Kaliningrad on the border with Poland if America presses ahead with the shield and ignores the proposed Azerbaijan site.

Mr. Putin, a former KGB agent, paid tribute to the work of the foreign intelligence service, saying it "helps the timely identification of external threats to our national security and strengthens the international position of our country."