KGB bribed senior figures in Indira govt

Former KGB senior archivist Vasili Mitrokhin wrote in "The Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB and the World" that the spy agency had bought secrets from Indian cabinet ministers and paid them retainers.

"It seemed like the entire country was for sale," Mitrokhin quotes then KGB general Olef Kalugnin as saying, describing India as a model for the infiltration of a third world government.

Excerpts were published on the front pages of major Indian newspapers Sunday. The claims were likely to embarrass the ruling coalition headed by the Congress party and supported from the outside by the Communist Party of India -- the two alleged recipients of KGB largesse.

"On at least one occasion a secret gift of two million rupees (then about 250,000 dollars) from Moscow to the Congress was personally delivered after midnight," Mitrokhin wrote.