MOSCOW EXPELS 5 AND BARS U.S. USE OF RUSSIAN AIDES

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Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100069-2
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RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
July 6, 2010
Sequence Number: 
69
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
October 24, 1986
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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ARTI AP~ Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100069-2 ONPAOB.lZ1.~ NEW YORK TIMES 24 October 1986 MOSCOWEXPELS 5 AND BARS U. S. USE OF RUSSIAN AIDES By SERGE SCHMEMANN Special to The New York Times MOSCOW, Oct. 22 - Striking in an- other round of the diplomatic expul- sions, the Soviet Union said today that five more staff members of the United States Embassy would have to leave and that all 260 Soviet employees of the embassy would be withdrawn. The Soviet Government further im=posed restrictions on the number .of Americans who could be stationed in the embassy for temporary duty and on the number of foreign house guests invited by American diplomats. Gennadi I. Gerasimov, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, in announcing the latest expulsions, said other steps would be taken if the United States con- tinued its "discriminatory practices" toward Soviet missions. Original U.S. Expulsion The Soviet steps were ordered after the United States expelled five Soviet diplomats and, in addition, ordered 50 others to leave view to equalize the em- bassy staffs of the two countries at 251 each. In a televised speech today about his meeting in Iceland with President Rea- gan, Mikhail S. Gorbachev said that the expulsions by the United States after so important an event appeared "wild to normal people." "We do not intend to allow such an outrage," he said. [In Washington, the White House reacted to the Gorbachev speech W saying that the two side seemed-k?, accord on the need for arms controk-' The United States seemed relieved that Moscow had expelled only five Americans in the latest retaliation. State Department officials said they were weighing whether to call a truce or respond in kind. Page A13, [Other officials said all the Soviet of- ficials suspected of being major spies would leave the United States as a re- sult of the expulsions. Page A11.1 'This Is Not Our Game' Mr. Gerasimov said the Soviet Upson was prepared to end the mutual expul- sions If the United States was. "This is not our game," he said. "But if you want to play the game of petty reciprocity, we will play." The American expulsion of 55 Soet personnel had followed the first expul- sion of five diplomats from the S4 let Union, in retaliation for the United States' original ouster of 25 members of the Soviet Mission to the United Na- tions that started the whole process. Mr. Gerasimov, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the Soviet expulsion of the first five on Sunday had been a "measured response" to the American expulsion of the original 25. "The U.S. Government chose the path of escalation," he said, alluding to the expulsion of 55 on Tuesday. "Here is our response," he added, referring to today's actions. "Now let's draw the line." Echoing the United States' argu- ments, Mr. Gerasimov said that the purpose of the latest expulsions was to equalize number of diplomatic person- nel assigned to each other's countries. He said the United States, in its calcu- lations, had ignored Soviet employees at American missions in the Soviet Union, diplomatti on temporary duty and the house guests who, he said, often came to work at the embassy. He said there were 220 Americans at the embassy here-and 25 at the consul- ate general in Leningrad as well as 260 Soviet employees. In addition, he said, about 500 Americans came each year for temporary duty, and there were 200 house guests annually. Ambassador Arthur A. Hartman, he said, had 63 guests last year. Five Americans Identified By contrast, he said, the Soviet Em- bassy In Washington and the consulate in San Francisco have only a handful of American employees and rarely had temporary staff or guests. The five Americans ordered out to- day were: Capt. Thomas T. Holme Jr., naval attache; Col. Richard M. Naab, army attache; Michael Morgan, a sec- ond secretary; Michael A. Matera, a third secretary, and Daniel P. Gross- man, a vice consul in Leningrad. The greatest effect, however, is likely to be the departure of the 260 Soviet service employees - house- maids, chauffeurs, maintenance work- ers, mechanics, secretaries and clerks. All are supplied to diplomatic missions here - and to foreign residents in gen- eral - by a Foreign Ministry agency called the Administration of Services for the Diplomatic Corps, which also manages apartments occupied by for- ign residents and handles many pt their travel and recreation requests. The Soviet employees in the United States Embassy, a nine-story building, have been restricted to the basement and the ground floor, where consular and cultural affairs are handled and where the embassy has its garages, re- pair shops, nursery school, library, clinic and cafeteria. Many of the Soviet employees have worked at the embassy for years, han- dling the complex dealings with the Soviet Government bureaucracy in making travel arrangements, procur- ing supplies, arranging tickets to cul- tural events, translating open docu- ments and explaining the intricacies of Soviet life. Congress Opposed Soviet Workers Some members of Congress contend that the Soviet employees pose a se- curity risk and should have been dis- missed a long time ago. No diplomat would deny that the Soviet employees have to report regularly on the activi- ties of their employers. But Ambassador Hartman contends that the employees, many of them cul- tivated people, have been one of the few contacts that the Americans, many of them non-Russian speakers, have had with the Soviet world. The use of the Soviet service employ- ees has also been considerably less ex- pensive than would be the employment of Americans in Moscow. Salaries for the Soviet staff range from 250 to 400 rubles ($350 to $560) a month, and they require no housing, schooling, travel or other expensive allowances supplied to United States Government employees. When Mr. Gerasimov was reminded of Congressional efforts to eliminate the Soviet nationals from embassy em- ployment, he said with a smile that the Soviet Union was acting to accommo- date those demands. STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100069-2