Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov accused the United States of taking "an unfriendly step" and vowed to "adequately respond" by sending US diplomats in Moscow home.

A senior State Department official said that four Russian diplomats have been declared "persona non grata" and ordered out of the country in 10 days as a result of the Robert Hanssen spy case. Another 46 have been asked to leave by July 1.

Two other Russian diplomats believed to be directly related to the Hanssen case had already left the country, the official said.

Hanssen, a 25-year FBI veteran, was arrested in a Virginia park on Feb. 18 after allegedly trying to make a "dead drop" to his Russian handlers. He is accused of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia since 1985.

Wednesday's announcement of the expulsions came a day after Secretary of State Colin Powell called Russian Ambassador Yury V. Ushakov to advise him of the action Washington was planning.

While the four Russian diplomats - and the two who left earlier - are believed to have direct links with the Hanssen case, the State Department official said the other 46 diplomats were expelled partly out of long-standing concerns over the heightened level of Russian intelligence operations in the United States, which increased significantly between 1993 and 1997.

A 'Political Act'

In the first direct official response to the order, Ivanov called the expulsions a "political act" and said the United States had flimsy grounds for the order.

In a statement read over national ORT television Wednesday, Ivanov expressed regret that Washington had resorted to the expulsion order. "If anyone had any questions or doubts, this could easily have been settled along "special channels and by special contacts," he said. "Unfortunately, Washington has chosen another way, so this step cannot be regarded as anything but a political one."

Earlier, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted an unnamed high-ranking law-enforcement official as saying the "response may affect representatives of all divisions of the US intelligence community working under diplomatic cover."

He also noted that the Russian Embassy in Washington employs 190 people, while the US Embassy in Moscow has 1,100, perhaps hinting that the number of Americans asked to leave the country would be larger than the number of Russians expelled from the United States.

Bush 'Extensively Involved' in Decision

For its part, the Bush administration has been attempting to play down fears that the expulsion order would lead to a deterioration of relations between the United States and Russia.

Speaking to reporters in Washington Wednesday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, "The president looks forward to having a productive relationship with Russia." He added that Bush was looking to have a policy that was "marked by realism."

Earlier Wednesday, national security adviser Condoleeza Rice said a large Russian diplomatic presence in the United States was "just not representative of the kind of relations we would want to have with Russia."

Latest in a Tit-for-Tat Spy Hunt

Washington and Moscow have exchanged tit-for-tat spy allegations since the end of the Cold War, with each side often responding quickly to such charges with ones of their own.

But the expulsion of 50 diplomats will be the largest by the United States since the Reagan administration ordered 55 Soviets to leave in 1986, done partly in retaliation for the Soviet Union's previous expulsion of five US diplomats.

While the action comes partly in retaliation for the discovery of Hanssen's alleged spying, sources noted the expulsions were prompted by a potential espionage trend that concerned the Bush administration.

Intelligence gathered by the United States indicates there are now more Russian spies infiltrating the country than at any time since the Cold War, officials said.

Senior Bush administration officials said the decision to expel such a large number of Russian diplomats was based on reliable evidence.

Hanssen, who is being held without bail, is alleged to have done "exceptionally grave" damage to US intelligence and compromised the identities of US agents.

Officials also suspect he may have alerted Moscow to a secret tunnel underneath the Russian Embassy in Washington, which the FBI reportedly used for eavesdropping.

(China Daily 03/23/2001)