U.S. IS EXPELLING 55 IN LATEST REPRISAL ON SOVIET ENVOYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100066-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 66
• Publication Date: October 22, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ARTICLE APP Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100066-5
ON PAGE NLW TUKK 11MES
22 October 1986
U.S. IS EXPELLING 55
INLATEST REPRISAL
ON SOVIET ENVOYS
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
Spedal to The Now York Time,
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 - The
United States, in a surprise move, to-
day ordered the expulsion of 55 Soviet
diplomats by Nov. 1. The action was in
retaliation for Moscow's ouster on Sun-
day of five American diplomats.
It was the largest number of Soviet
diplomats ever expelled at one time
from the United States.
In Moscow, the Government press
agency Tass termed the move "an-
other step aimed at worsening Soviet-
American relations." Before the Amer-
ican announcement, Gennadi I. Gerasi-
mov, the Foreign Ministry spokesman,
said: "If the U.S. side insists on a con-
tinuation of the game according to the
'tit-for-tat' principle, all this may go on
endlessly. It seems, to us that it is time
this whole affair be rounded off."
U.S. Began the Expulsions
The American action affects person-
nel at the Soviet Embassy in Washing-
ton and the consulate general in San
Francisco. It is the latest in a series of
expulsions that began Sept. 17 when the
United States ordered 25 members of
the Soviet Mission to the United Na-
tions to leave on the ground that they
were intelligence agents.
American officials disclosed for the
first time that the Soviet Union was
warned last month that retaliation for
the ouster of the 25 would result in a
countermove in which the entire Soviet
diplomatic presence in the United
States would be sharply reduced
Coming nine days after the Iceland
meeting between President Reagan,
and Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the increase
in expulsions raised questions about
the effect on Soviet-American relations
and prospects for a summit meeting in
the United States.
Not Discussed in Iceland
The two leaders had been expected to
discuss the original expulsion of 25
Soviet diplomats accredited to the
United Nations, and the Soviet threat of
retaliation. However, with attention fo-
cused on arms control, the expulsion
dispute did not came up.
Today a State Department official
predicted a chill in relations and a fur-
ther Soviet retaliation. But a State De-
partment spokesman also expressed
the hope that the damage to relations
could be contained.
STAT
"We remain committed to pursuing
the dialogue stemming from the Reyk-
javik meeting in all areas of our rela-
tionship,' said Charles E. Redman,
who had just been made the new State'
Department spokesman.
The expulsion of 55 diplomats from
the united states seems to be the sec-
ond largest such expulsion from a
Western country. In 1971, Britain ex-
pelled 105 Soviet personnel. In 1983,
France expelled 47. In those incidents,
the Soviet reaction was muted. It ex-
pelled 18 Britons, and took no action
against France.
Last year, however, Britain expelled
25 Soviet personnel, and this led to a
prompt retaliation in which 25 Britons
were ordered to leave. When London
followed by expelling six more, so did
Moscow. At that stage, a truce was de-
clared.
Today's expulsion order, announced
by Mr. Redman, had two parts.
The first part, which had been antici-
pated, reacted specifically to the ouster
of the five Americans from the Soviet
Union. It ordered five Soviet diplomats
- four at the embassy in Washington
and one in San Francisco - to leave, in
direct retaliation for the expulsion of
four from the United States Embassy
in Moscow and one from the consulate
general in Leningrad. The names of the
five Soviet diplomats were made pub-
lic.
The second part, which was unex-
pected, ordered the expulsion of 50
additional Soviet personnel - 38 from
the embassy and 12 from the consulate.
These 50, whose names were speci-
fied in a note to the Soviet Union, but
were not made public, were expelled to
establish "strict equality in numbers"
between the American and Soviet dip-
lomatic personnel This had long been a
goal of the Federal Bureau of Investi-
gation and had been called for by Con-
gress, to reduce the Soviet capacity for
espionage.
The problem of espionage is a big
problem,' Mr. Redman said, "and an
important one, but it is a separate
problem. As I said, our plan is to go on
with the dialogue, but at the same time,
as you can see by this action, we will
certainly do everything we can to pre-
vent this country from being used as a
haven for espionage."
Since the Soviet Union traditionally
uses its own nationals for service func-
tions in diplomatic missions and the
United States hires local nationals for
service jobs such as drivers, janitors,
receptionists and laborers, there has
always been an imbalance. By agree-
ment the Soviet Union was allowed up
to 320 personnel.
U.S. Seeking a Level of 251
As of today, Mr. Redman said, there
were 301 Soviet personnel, 263 in the
embassy in Washington and 38 in the
San Francisco consulate. The cutback
of 50 will bring the total to 251, equal to
that of American diplomatic personnel
i in the Soviet Union - 225 in the em-
bassy in Moscow and 26 in the consul-
ate in Leningrad. The United States
also has 200 Soviet nationals on its
staff, while the Soviet Union is believed
to have no more than 10 Americans.
Until today, the State Department
hesitated to seek equality on the
ground that this would touch off a
Soviet retaliation. Instead the State De-
partment favored bringing its level in
the Soviet Union up to that of Soviet
personnel in the United States.
Oleg M. Sokolov, the minister-
counselor of the Soviet embassy, was
informed of the American move this
morning at the State Department by
Thomas W. Simons Jr., Deputy Assist-
ant Secretary of State for European
and Canadian affairs.
On Monday, State Department and
White House officials not directly in-
volved in the issue said they were confi-
dent that the United States' response to
the ouster of five American diplomats
would be measured.
But according to various sources,
President Reagan, in a meeting of his
advisers on Monday, was persuaded by
Attorney General Edwin L. Meese 3d to
crack down by carrying out a previous
threat to cut down the size of the Soviet
official missions to the level of the
American missions in the Soviet Union.
It could not be learned whether Sec-
retary of State George P. Shultz had
opposed the idea.
The five Soviet diplomats ousted in
direct retaliation for the five Amer-
icans and publicly identified are Vasily
Fedotov, Oleg Likhachev and Alek-
sandr Metelkin, embassy counselors;
Nikolai N. Kokovin, an attach'for sci-
ence and technology, and Lev Zaitsev,
;a consul in San Francisco.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100066-5