LONDON -- Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared Tuesday that the expulsion of 31 Soviets on spy charges has 'broken the heart' of Moscow's espionage network in Britain. More retaliatory expulsions by Moscow were predicted.
A Soviet journalist known for his KGB connections said the Kremlin will throw out more Britons in retaliation for six Soviets ordered out of Britain Monday. Moscow ordered 25 Britons expelled Saturday in retaliation for Thatcher's expulsion of 25 Soviets last Thursday.
Thesuspected Soviet spies were identified by the KGB's London station chief, Oleg Gordievski, whose defection to Britain was announced last Thursday. The 'spy war' has taken on the appearance of a test of wills between Thatcher, the so-called 'Iron Lady,' and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
'We have certainly broken the heart of the Soviet Union's unacceptable intelligence activities in London,' Thatcher told reporters in Cairo, which she is visiting as part of a five-day sweep through the Middle East. 'And that of course is a great achievement from the viewpoint of the security of Britain.
'The 25 we expelled from London first were all names, people who we knew, by virtue of what the defector had told us, were actively engaged in totally unacceptable intelligence and subversive activities,' she said.
Thatcher said Moscow's 25 retaliatory expulsions were 'totally unjustifiable' so London 'expelled a further six who also had been involved with such activities but not in such a prominent way.'
'At the same time, we made this declaration to the Soviet charge d'affaires: we said we hope it was the end of the matter because ... we both have to live in the same world and we do not wish to have conflict between the Soviet people and our people,' she said.
'Therefore, we hope the last expulsions by Britain will be the end of the matter and that now we can get on with the business of trying to ensure that there will be no conflict between the Soviet Union and our people,' Thatcher said.
Thatcher's stated hopes that the diplomatic wrangle would end sparked reports of a British-Soviet truce but the Foreign Office in London vowed 'no deals' had been struck with the Russians.
A British Broadcasting Corp. radio report said a new Soviet retaliation was expected once again to be one-for-one, which would mean six more Britons. Diplomatic sources said this could mean that London would then expel yet more Soviets.
The Kremlin has protested the expulsions as 'grossly vindictive.'
Soviet journalist Victor Louis, writing from Moscow for London's Standard newspaper, said 'Britain can expect retaliaton for the latest expulsions from London by the expulsion of more Britons from Russia.'
Louis warned that since Britain has a smaller diplomatic staff and community in Moscow that the Soviet Union has in London, Thatcher would be the loser in a continuing one-for-one reduction.
Louis has often broken big stories regarding the Soviet Union such as the Soviet pullout from the 1984 Olympics.
