FRANCE EXPELS 4 RUSSIANS AND MOSCOW RETALIATES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100490005-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: February 4, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STnT
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100490005-6
ARTICLE AP
ON PAGE
NEW YORK TIMES
~ February 1986
France Expels 4 Russians and Moscow Retaliates
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
$pecfelto The New Yank 71mee
PARIS, Feb. 3 -The Foreign Minis-
try announced today that four soviet
diplomats had been expelled from
France following unspecified investi-
gations into their activities. Within
hours, officials here said the Soviet
Union had retaliated by ordering four
French envoys to leave Moscow by the
end otthe week.
The moves came 10 days after the ar-
rest of a retired French Air Force me-
chanic on charges of spying for Mos-
cow.
The Foreign Ministry provided no de-
tails onthe identities or functions of the
Russians at the Soviet Embassy here,
saying only that they had been asked to
leave French territory after "judicial
investigatims."
The French t-ews agency however,
citing "reliable sources," said all were
listed either as military or commercial
attach~.s at tht embassy; they were all
known to be working for the G.R.U.,
the intelligence arm of the Soviet
Army. the news agency said.
4 I.eare for Moscow
The four Soviet diplomats were said
to have left Paris by plane for Moscow
over the weekend.
Both Governments immediately de-
nounced each other's actions. The
Soviet Embassy in Paris condemned
the expulsions of its officials as "obvi-
ously inimical and provocative" and
said the charges were unfounded.
The French Foreign Ministry said
the Government "deplores" the Krem-
lin countermove, which it called totally
unjustified.
A French official, who asked not to
be identified, said the four Russians
were involved in the case of the retired
air force mechanic, Bernard Souris-
seau, who has been accused by the
French counterintelligence service of
passing information to the Russians
about the movement of French naval
vessels near the port of Brest, a major
nuclear submarine base.
The expulsionu this weekend were
described here as the most serious
taken against Soviet personnel by
France since 1983, when 47 Soviet diplo-
mats and citizens at the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization were asked to leave the
crotmtry.
Relatlons Have Improved
In the past, the Soviet Union has re-
sponded to expulsions from Western
countries by demanding the departure
from Moscow of an equal number of
those countries' diplomats. In the 1983
Unesco case, however, the Soviet
Union did not retaliate against France.
Since 1983, France has expelled a
total of 53 Soviet diplomats, including
the Consul General of Marseilles at the
end of last year and a member of a
commercial mission in Paris in 1984.
The foie expulsions this weekend
came amid an improved atmosphere in
French-Soviet relations following the
visit here last summer of the Soviet
leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Presi-
dent Frangois Mitterrand is expected
to return the visit later this year.
An official here said that he did not
think the latest expulsions would affect
the improved French-Soviet climate.
"At the same time," the official said,
"it is sometimes necessary to let the
Soviets know that they have gone too
far and then to be firm. This is what
was done in this case."
regular trips to the Atlantic ports of
Lorient and Brest to observe French
naval movements, particularly the
missile~carrying nuclear submarines
based in those ports.
Mr. Sourisseau's reported activities
were part of what the French have seen
as an increase in Soviet espionage ac-
tivities here.
Soviet Spylag Said to Rise
The latest spy case broke when the
Interior Ministry announced the arrest
of Mr. Sourisseau, 49 years old, afor-
Trter helicopter repairman, in the vil-
lage of I.e Croisic near the coast of
Brittany.
Mr. Sourissesu is accused of making
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100490005-6