World Notes ESPIONAGE

In tit-for-tat expulsions that left officials on both sides of the superpower divide grumbling, the Soviets and the Americans each ousted a military attache on charges of espionage. The first blow was struck by the U.S. two weeks ago, when it expelled Lieut. Colonel Yuri Pakhtusov from the Soviet embassy in Washington. State Department and FBI officials accused Pakhtusov of having received classified information about computer-security programs. Pakhtusov allegedly got the documents from an American employee of a U.S. company that does business with the Government.

Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov denounced the expulsion as a "provocation" and "not in line with the spirit of peaceful cooperation." Five days later the Soviets responded in kind, ordering U.S. embassy employee Lieut. Colonel Daniel Van Gundy to leave Moscow. The charge: attempting to enter a closed area and take pictures of military facilities. As denials flew on both sides and the threat of further expulsions loomed, a Western envoy in Moscow predicted: "Relations aren't permanently hurt by this. It's just a shoving match."