MOSCOW SETS EXPULSION OF 6 FRENCHMEN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403740002-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 5, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403740002-5
WASHINGTON POST
5 April 1987
Moscow Sets .
Expulsion of
6 Frenchmen
Move Follows Ouster
Of Soviets in Paris ,
IT
By Gary Lee
W:uhuigtnn Post Foreign Service
MOSCOW, April 4-The Soviet
Union today ordered two French
diplomats and a French business-
man out of the country and said that
two other diplomats and a busines4
official will be expelled later.
The expulsions come three days
after three Soviets were expelled
from France on charges of involve-
ment in space espionage.
They were announced to Yves
Pagniez, the French ambassador to
the Soviet Union, in a meeting at
the Soviet Foreign Ministry today.
A senior Foreign Ministry official
told Pagniez that the six were being
asked to leave for "activities incom,
patible with their official status,"
diplomatic terminology usually used
to indicate spying charges.
France expelled the three Sovi'
ets for "activities unconnected with
their mission and status" after
French officials discovered, a spy
ring attempting to steal secrets of
the European Ariane rocket.
The Soviet Union considers the
French action "an openly unfriendly
step obviously of political nature,
aimed at poisoning the atmosphere
of Soviet-French contacts," the So-
viet news agency Tass said.
Moscow has also vigorously de~
nied involvement in alleged espio-
nage at the space center where the
Ariane is being developed.
The expulsions have soured rC
lations between Paris and Moscow
a month before French Prime Mite
ister Jacques Chirac is scheduled to
visit the Soviet Union. If France
retaliates by expelling other Sov1.
ets, a counter-retaliation from Mos
cow could be expected, western
diplomats said.
In late 1982, when France m
pelled 47 Soviets from its embassy
in Paris, the Soviet Union expelled
no Frenchmen from Moscow.
Tass tonight blamed France for
the "negative consequences of the
affair" and urged Paris to halt "its
attempts to put up artificial obsta-
cles" to French-Soviet relations.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403740002-5