THE headline in Russia's most controversial newspaper Savershejino Sekretna (Top Secret) reads: "The Minister Has No Clothes." Very soon, it seems likely, the same Minister will have no job.
The magazine showed grainy pictures of what appeared to be the Minister for Justice, Mr Valentin Kovalyov, cavorting with naked women in the sauna of a Moscow nightclub. It also accused him of having criminal connections.
Mr Kovalyov yesterday announced he had asked to be temporarily removed from his post so that he could clear his name. He suggested his image might have been inserted in the sauna photographs through the use of computer technology.
President Yeltsin, due to return later today from the G7 summit in Denver, has not yet learned the details of the scandal surrounding his Justice Minister but is expected to deal with the matter urgently.
No one denies Savershenaa Sekretno is a prurient publication but in the past it has been shown to have had some very reliable sources and since it published the pictures in its weekend issue, Russian television stations have been showing similar poorly defined video clips of the same scene.
Mr Kovalyov would have found himself in deep trouble even if the only allegations against him were of a sexual nature; but the article in Sovershenno Sekretno raises more questions of a more sinister nature.
The videotape, the article said was taken from the safe of Mr Arkady Angelevich, who serves on the public council of the Moscow police force, during a search of his dacha outside Moscow.
There are reasons to believe that Mr Angelevich (35), the head of the banking organisation Montazhspetsbank, is no angel.
On April 17th he was detained on suspicion of stealing $7 million and Sovershenno Sekretno maintains that he "always carried an official identity card as adviser to the Justice Minister".
The article also claimed the pictures were taken in a nightclub frequented by "the boys from Solntsevo", a reference to Russia's most notorious gangbased in the Moscow suburb of Solntsevo. Its leader, Sergei Mikhailov, alias Mikhas, is currently in prison in Switzerland.
Mr Kovalyov vigorously denied the allegations to the Russian news agency Interfax, saying he would defend his good name "by all available means under Russian legislation and international law".
Interfax also quoted the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin. who had called Mr Kovalyov back from a foreign visit, as saying he considered the Minister's suspension from office as "proper", under the circumstances.
Mr Kovalyov (53) has been Justice Minister since January 1995 and is also a member of the Russian Security Council which deals with crime and corruption.
