12-21-95. WPutz: "In an unusual interview Yevgeny Primakov, head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, discussed problems and challenges facing his intelligence agency in terms that often sounded like testimony that CIA Director John M. Deutch gave the House intelligence committee Tuesday. In comments that echoed those of his U.S. counterparts, Primakov charged that some post-Cold War budget cuts in his agency developed 'because the [Russian] press ganged up on us [and] many newspapers wrote absurd things about us, including statements that foreign intelligence was no longer necessary at all.' His remarks about media coverage were similar to recent statements by Deutch and his predecessors, R. James Woolsey and Robert M. Gates." KGB_cia (5 cia)