Col. Stanislav Lunev
Thursday, March 22, 2001

There is no doubt that by taking this step the Bush administration is acting in a manner very different from that of the Clinton-Gore team in the area of national security. An expulsion of all those both ordered out immediately and asked to leave later would be the biggest such action since President Reagan threw out 80 Soviet diplomats in 1986.

Politically this move is totally correct, because currently the Russian intelligence services SVR and GRU (Russia's political and military intelligence agencies, respectively) are operating against the U.S. in a much more active manner than they were during even the hottest days of the Cold War.

According to official estimates, during the past couple of years the number of Russian intelligence personnel operating in this country was equal to the all-time high under the Soviets.

The latest spy case involving FBI agent Robert Hanssen, accused of spying for Russia for 15 years, very clearly demonstrates the level of Russian intelligence activity against the U.S. While the American public already knows of his case, the exact number of Russian spies who worked for the former Soviet Union and are now working for Russia in this country is known only to their handlers in Moscow.

Every Russian intelligence officer in this country, however, usually handles one to two of his own agents, so-called trusted persons, so we could only imagine the number of spies who were being handled by the few dozen Russian diplomats expelled. Expulsion is traditionally connected with intelligence agents who are identified by local counterintelligence agencies.

It would not be realistic to believe that the spies handled by the expelled Russian intelligence agents could be easily identified and arrested in the U.S. But after expulsion of their Russian handlers, at least for a while these spies would be in a difficult operational environment and could not continue to damage U.S. national security on the same level as they did before, under the direction of their handlers.

The expulsion of a few dozen Russian intelligence agents under operational cover of diplomats doesn't cover all SVR and GRU intelligence personnel in the United States, because many of them are still working in this country and pretending to be Russian trade mission representatives, correspondents, different experts, businessmen and others. But with this expulsion the U.S. very clearly demonstrated its unwillingness to keep so many aggressive spies in this country any longer.

This expulsion also could be recognized as a kind of wake-up call to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who personally authorized aggressive spy activity of his intelligence services against the U.S., which has provided and continues to provide assistance to the Russian Federation. To ask for and receive aid while increasing spying against the U.S. cannot be considered responsible, moral or ethical behavior.

Of course, sooner or later the Russian authorities will restore the number of their diplomatic personnel in the U.S. In a few months the empty spaces in the Russian Embassy, general consulates and other places will be occupied by new diplomats.

But the question of who exactly will occupy this space – real diplomats or spies under diplomatic operational cover – can be answered only by the Russian government, and personally by its president.

If President Putin understands that the new U.S. administration is different from the last and will not accept new sweetheart deals with the Russian government and its aggressive spying activity against America, it could be that in a few months we will have here more real diplomats and fewer spies than we have now.

If not, the Bush administration will have enough chances to explain to Putin and his government that the time is over when Russian intelligence agencies could operate in this country almost as if it were their own back-yard.

It's very difficult to expect this understanding from Putin, who came to power in Russia from its secret police. And there is no doubt that, especially to save face and to maintain Russia's international prestige, Putin could soon retaliate and expel the same number of American diplomatic personnel from Moscow.

We know that domestically Putin is consolidating maximum state power in his hands on his way to a personal dictatorship. Internationally he is trying to restore Russia's influence and dominant position at the expense of Western democracies. In this way, Russian intelligence agencies have been a powerful tool in realizing Putin's ambitions, and until now they have not met any serious resistance.

From now on, Moscow will know that its possibilities are not unlimited. The Kremlin leaders have for a long time needed to learn a lesson, which they haven't been getting. They've finally gotten it.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Russia
Hanssen Spy Case

Read Col. Lunev's account of being a Soviet spy in America, "Through the Eyes of the Enemy."