The Foreign Office is to expel 90 Soviet diplomats who have been spying for Russia, after a KGB defector revealed sabotage plans

Britain is to expel 90 Soviet diplomats who have been engaged in active espionage, the Foreign Office announced last night. Another 15 Soviet officials, at present overseas, will not be allowed to return to this country. Many of these men are suspected of involvement in planning acts of sabotage.

The expulsion order - affecting nearly 20 per cent of the 550 Soviet diplomats in Britain - is unprecedented in size and scope. It follows months of intensive investigation by the intelligence services, and the defection of a top KGB officer from the Soviet Embassy in London.

The KGB man, who had the rank of major, proved the catalyst for the “clearing” operation against Soviet espionage. He gave the security services a comprehensive breakdown of his country’s espionage apparatus in Britain - and also supplied details “of plans for infiltration of agents for purposes of sabotage”, the Foreign Office said.

In the opinion of Mr Heath and Sir Alec Douglas-Home, this crisis over diplomatic espionage by Soviet officials is so serious that the British Government cannot, and will not, enter preparations for the European Security Conference proposed by the Soviet Union until the crisis is resolved.

They have also informed Mr Gromyko in a curt message sent to him last night.

The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have been appalled by the revelation that so many of the Soviet diplomats stationed here are actually fully fledged professional spies, the products of elaborate training schools in the USSR. They have told the Soviet Foreign Minister that this, more than any other factor, imposes the greatest strain on good relations between Britain and the Soviet Union.

Mr Heath has been particularly angered to learn that two personal letters from Sir Alec to the Soviet Foreign Minister, couched in the most restrained, courteous terms, have remained unanswered, although the first went on December 3, 1970, and the second on August 4.

The Foreign Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, meets the Soviet Foreign Minister in New York next week. Preparations are still going forward in Whitehall for the visit to Moscow by Sir Alec, planned for early in the new year, on the basis that this visit could perhaps inaugurate a new era of better Anglo-Soviet relations, provided the spy situation is dealt with now, once and for all. At the same time, the Foreign Office here is braced for the possibility of reprisal expulsions against the staff of the British Embassy in Moscow.



Files for Britain

The terms of the expulsion of the Soviet diplomats in London were spelt out in a terse, toughly worded Aide Mémoire, which was handed to the Soviet Chargé here, Mr Ippolitov, when he was summoned to the Foreign Office yesterday by Sir Denis Greenhill, head of the diplomatic service.

The 90 diplomats - most from the embassy, but some working for the trade delegation and other organisations in London - have been given two weeks to leave Britain. From now on, the Aide Mémoire said, “the numbers of Soviet officials in the various categories...will be limited to the level at which they will stand after the withdrawal of the persons referred to.” Among the Soviet organisations with sizeable staffs in Britain are Aeroflot; the government wood delegation; the Moscow Narodny Bank; Intourist; and AMO Plant. Last night the Foreign Office would not comment on how many employees of these firms were affected.

The Aide Mémoire also stressed that, as part of the clearing operation, the re-entry visas of certain Soviet officials now overseas were no longer valid.



A lengthy - and equally strong-worded - Foreign Office statement recalled that the size of the Soviet Embassy was limited in November, 1968, “but the numbers in other categories continued to grow.

“The total is now over 550, which is higher than the comparable figure for Soviet officials appointed to any other Western country, including the United States.”



Much of the statement was devoted to the role of the KGB agent who defected a few weeks ago: “Further evidence of the scale and nature of Soviet espionage in Britain, conducted under the auspices of the Soviet Embassy, the trade delegation, and other organisations, has been provided by a Soviet official who recently applied for, and was given, permission to remain in this country.

“This man, an officer of the KGB, brought with him certain information and documents, including plans for the infiltration of agents for the purpose of sabotage.”

This is an edited extract, click to read more

