U.S. Expels Soviet Diplomat as Spy : He Is Arrested Allegedly Trying to Acquire Military Data

The United States Friday expelled a Soviet diplomat at the United Nations after accusing him of spying but went to extraordinary lengths to minimize the incident in an apparent effort to avoid disturbing the current delicate state of U.S.-Soviet relations.

The diplomat, Mikhail Katkov, a second secretary assigned to the Soviet mission at the United Nations, allegedly was caught in New York City Thursday by FBI agents as he was trying to acquire unspecified military technology. After Katkov proved that he had diplomatic status, he was turned over to representatives of the Soviet U.N. mission.

State Department spokesman Charles Redman said that Katkov had engaged in “activities which are in abuse of his privileges of residence”--language that he acknowledged often serves as a euphemism for espionage. “We expect him to depart shortly,” he said.

First Case Since Zakharov

It was the first such case since Gennady Zakharov, a Soviet employee of the U.N. Secretariat, was expelled from the United States last year.

Zakharov, who did not have diplomatic immunity, originally was held in jail in the United States to await prosecution. He was freed and ordered to leave the country after Soviet police in Moscow, in an apparent retaliatory move, arrested and detained an American reporter, Nicholas Daniloff of U.S. News & World Report.

U.S. officials made clear Friday that they wanted to avoid touching off any new round of tit-for-tat expulsions. “I couldn’t speculate, of course, on possible Soviet behavior, but I could only note that there would be no justification for the Soviet side to retaliate in a case like this,” Redman said.

An Administration source confirmed that the material sought by Katkov was military in nature. He said it was “not a huge deal, but nonetheless serious espionage.”

Still, the Justice and State departments refrained Friday from making public any details of the nature of the technology that Katkov was seeking, of Katkov’s espionage techniques or of the surveillance that led to his apprehension. U.S. officials acknowledged only that he had been under surveillance “for some time” and that “this was a long-term operation.”

Sharp Contrast in Conduct

Their reticence contrasted sharply with the conduct of U.S. officials in past cases involving Soviet espionage in the United States.

When Zakharov was arrested, U.S. officials made public the details of his recruiting techniques. And, when the FBI arrested a senior Soviet military attache in Washington in June, 1986, it announced that he was seeking information on the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative and disclosed in minute detail the cloak-and-dagger scheme they said he was operating.

“Espionage arrests are always coordinated with other elements of the government,” said a source close to the investigation. “There was a U.S. government decision at the higher levels that there will be not much detail put out in this case.”

‘We Can’t Say Anything’

“Our hands are tied. We can’t say anything,” said another U.S. official usually eager to make public the details of Soviet diplomats caught spying. “We’re taking our orders from the National Security Council.”

The expulsion order came scarcely eight days after the conclusion of a summit meeting between Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and President Reagan. At that summit, the two leaders signed an unprecedented arms control treaty on intermediate-range nuclear missiles and agreed to work toward another pact on long-range, strategic missiles in Moscow next year.

The Reagan Administration waited until after the Reagan-Gorbachev meetings had ended before introducing a Nicaraguan defector, Maj. Roger Miranda Bengoechea, to American reporters. Miranda--who alleged in interviews that the Soviet Union had promised to furnish MIG-21 jet fighters to the Sandinista government--had defected to the United States in October.

Timing Not Explained

On Friday, U.S. officials offered no detailed explanation for why Katkov had been caught and expelled at this particular time, after a lengthy period of surveillance.

“He was apprehended in the course of abusing his privileges,” Redman said. “And that act . . . was obviously something that was on his agenda and which we responded to.”

Last year, after Daniloff’s arrest, President Reagan said that the Soviet effort to prosecute him “limits severely what is achievable in our bilateral relations.” Daniloff was released in Moscow in an action that coincided with the release of Zakharov in the United States.

This time, U.S. officials went to great lengths to avoid linking the new spy case to broader issues of Soviet-American relations. In fact, at one point, Redman characterized espionage as a nasty but routine aspect of the relationship between the two superpowers.

‘The Unpleasant Aspects’

“There are many aspects to this relationship, and this is one of the more unpleasant aspects that arise from time to time, which we have pursued in the past and which we will pursue in the future,” he said.

Officials familiar with Katkov’s case said that they did not expect any more arrests. “You can assume there are no more shoes to drop,” one U.S. official said.

According to State Department records, Katkov was the 42nd Soviet official assigned either to the Soviet U.N. mission or to the U.N. Secretariat to have been expelled from the United States for espionage since 1950.

The United States has indirectly acknowledged that, in some instances, Soviet diplomats caught spying are asked to leave the country without any publicity at all. According to a State Department tabulation, the figure of 42 expulsions from the United Nations does not include such cases.

After Daniloff’s arrest last year, the Administration expelled 25 Soviet U.N. mission employees, saying that all of them had been identified as spies.