Russian secret service art prize

By James Rodgers
BBC News, Moscow

The imposing headquarters of the Federal Security Service in Moscow

Russia's main successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, the FSB, has launched a competition to find the best artistic portrayal of its work.

It will show the more public side of a highly secretive agency, which wields huge influence in modern Russia.

The FSB wants to change the perception that artists and secret policemen are not always comfortable companions.

The FSB's website lists categories for the nominations, including film, TV, acting, music and literature.

Beslan sculpture

The FSB, or Federal Security Service, has emerged from the post-Soviet restructuring of the KGB as a very powerful organisation.

Former officers are among the most influential people in Russia today.

President Putin is a former director of the FSB

They include outgoing President Vladimir Putin, and, it is widely believed, many senior members of his administration.

But they may still have some way to go to prove their credentials as arbiters of art.

The government newspaper, Rossiskaya Gazeta, has printed an interview with Vadim Kirillov.

He won a prize last year for a sculpture of an agent rescuing a child from the school siege in Beslan in 2004.

Mr Kirillov is asked if he previously had any links with the FSB.

"No," he replies. "We're creative people and we've always been a long way from the secret services."