Thursday March 22 7:06 AM ET
Kremlin Sees Cold War in U.S. Expulsion Plans

By Martin Nesirky

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and the United States were locked in a deepening row on Thursday after a U.S. official said it planned to expel some 50 Russian diplomats in what would be the biggest mass expulsion since the Cold War ended.

An unnamed U.S. official said on Wednesday the United States was expelling diplomats suspected of being intelligence officers, partly in retaliation for the case of FBI agent Robert Hanssen, accused of spying for Moscow over 15 years.

Washington has yet to confirm the mass expulsions, which would be the latest twist in ties already complicated by differences over arms control and Chechnya.

The Kremlin said the expulsion plans would be a sorry lapse into Cold War spymania if carried out, and security sources told Russian news agencies Moscow would retaliate swiftly.

``If these reports are true, such action would cause deep regret in Russia,'' Interfax news agency quoted President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy adviser as saying.

``Any campaigns of spymania or searches for an enemy are only worthy of deep regret and are a relapse into the Cold War era,'' Sergei Prikhodko said in the first Kremlin reaction.

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told Russian reporters he might have an official statement later on Thursday on the spy row.

A diplomatic source told Interfax Russia was waiting for confirmation from Washington that diplomats were being expelled.

``If it happens, Moscow's retaliatory measures will follow without delay,'' the source said.

U.S. ambassador James Collins held brief pre-arranged talks at the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday but declined to comment as he left the Stalinesque skyscraper in central Moscow.

``I have no comment whatsoever on this matter,'' he told reporters. ``Any comments will come from Washington or from the government here.''

Interfax said Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov had discussed with Collins the growing number of irritants in ties with the new administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, including Chechnya.

Russia Would Respond ``Adequately''

Russia denounced plans by U.S. officials to meet a Chechen rebel envoy as an ``explicitly unfriendly act.''

A U.S. official had said on Tuesday contacts with Ilyas Akhmadov, the foreign minister of the separatist Chechen government that is resisting Russia's military onslaught in the region, were planned for later this week.

``Such meetings seriously complicate our joint fight against international terrorism, which is one of the most dangerous challenges to world security and stability, and cannot but influence Russian-U.S. relations,'' the ministry said.

Russian security and diplomatic sources, quoted by Russian news agencies, have been swift to condemn the U.S. plans and have vowed to respond in kind.

``To respond adequately, Russia would have to expel hundreds of employees from the U.S. embassy to reflect the proportionate Russian losses in the United States,'' RIA news agency quoted a Russian security source as saying.

RIA's source said Russia had 190 people at its missions in the United States while the United States had 1,100 of its citizens in Russia.

A U.S. embassy official told Reuters there were 650-700 ''direct hires,'' meaning diplomats and other staff on postings in Moscow from the United States.

The U.S. official who gave news of the planned expulsions to Reuters on Wednesday said about six Russian officials had been declared persona non grata for alleged spying activities.

About 40 other Russian officials suspected of being intelligence officers were being asked to leave in response to concerns that Russia had had too many spies in the United States for some time, the official added.

If carried through, this would be the biggest U.S. expulsion of suspected spies since ``Operation Famish'' in 1986 when President Ronald Reagan ordered 80 Soviet diplomats out of the country -- long before the Cold War ended a decade ago.

RIA quoted sources as saying the expulsions would show the State Department had gained the upper hand over U.S. spy agencies, which do not like large-scale expulsions because they inevitably unravel their own espionage operations abroad.

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