Moscow Expels Canada Attache, Bars 7 Others

The Soviet Union on Saturday ordered Canada’s military attache to leave and barred seven former Canadian diplomats from returning to the country in retaliation for Canada’s expulsion of Soviet diplomats.

The Soviets also pulled 25 Soviet workers from Canada’s Moscow embassy.

The Tass news agency accused the Canadian military attache, Larry Bowen, of “engaging in activity that does not correspond to his official status”--diplomatic jargon for spying.

Tass said a Soviet deputy foreign minister, Alexander A. Bessmertynkh, told Canadian Ambassador Vernon Turner that the Ottawa government had “resorted to a new hostile action” by expelling a senior Soviet military attache and barring other Soviet diplomats from returning.

“Unfortunately, they didn’t heed . . . our warning that if the Canadian side moved on to further aggravate the situation, it could expect immediate further retaliatory measures,” Tass said.

‘Totally Unwarranted’

In Ottawa, a spokesman for Canadian Foreign Minister Joe Clark called the latest Soviet move “totally unwarranted.”

“This is viewed as a serious escalation in the matter, and we can’t ignore it,” the spokesman, Paul Frazer, said.

Clark announced Wednesday that eight Soviets had been expelled and nine others previously assigned to Canada were barred from returning. Canadian intelligence sources said the expulsions came after the Canadians discovered a Soviet spy ring.

Canadian intelligence sources said the spy ring was trying to infiltrate an electronics plant in Montreal where naval weapons systems are built.

The Soviets retaliated the next day, expelling two Canadian diplomats and barring three others from returning.

Military Attache Expelled

Clark then expelled the senior military attache at the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa and barred a former second secretary from returning.

The Kremlin’s withdrawal of 25 of its 39 Soviet workers at the Canadian Embassy will affect daily business in Moscow, Frazer said.

American diplomats did the cooking, cleaning, driving, translating and errands at the U.S. Embassy and at the consulate in Leningrad after Soviet authorities pulled out all 260 Soviet employees in Moscow on Oct. 22, 1986, to retaliate for U.S. expulsions of Soviet diplomats.

Tass did not say whether Canada could replace the 25 Soviet workers.

Tass said the Soviet Union rejects spying charges leveled against Soviets in Canada as “ungrounded.”

A Soviet deputy foreign minister, Yuri M. Vorontsov, told a news conference Saturday that the Soviet retaliation was not a deviation from Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s “new thinking” in foreign affairs.

“I think it’s the Canadian leaders who sin by ‘old thinking’ when they undertake measures which cause surprise,” Vorontsov said. “It looks like a soap opera to me.”