Carry on spying offer has sting in its tail

MOSCOW - The head of Russian intelligence has made a public appeal to Russians spying for foreign powers - call our special hotline…

MOSCOW - The head of Russian intelligence has made a public appeal to Russians spying for foreign powers - call our special hotline and become double agents.

The deal is simple: own up and you can go on taking money from your foreign paymasters. Keep quiet and we'll get you in the end. "We will find them all otherwise, sooner or later." Gen Nikolai Kovalyov, head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the Soviet KGB, said in an interview on Moscow television late on Tuesday.

The Moscow telephone number he gave 224-0035 - was constantly busy yesterday morning. The FSB says it caught 39 agents of foreign powers in 1995 and 1996, and 400 foreign spies.