Kremlin bar on U.S. envoys

Press, 7 August 1982, Page 8

Kremlin bar on U.S. envoys

Washington

The Soviet Union had barred American diplomats from a Moscow beach used by the foreign diplomatic corps, the State Department said yesterday.

The Soviet restriction results from the refusal of a small New York • suburb to allow Soviet diplomats living there on its beaches, golf courses, and tennis courts.

A department spokesman said that the United States Embassy in Moscow had been notified by the Soviet • authorities that its personnel would no longer have access to the diplomatic beach in Moscow.

“We regret this decision on the part of Soviet authorities. Neither side can benefit from an escalation of mutual restrictions on each other’s diplomats,” the spokesman said.

“Moreover, as they know, the United States Government is making every legal effort to have the prohibition by the Glen Cove authorities lifted.”

He was referring to a decision by the city council of Glen Cove, a 25,000-strong community on Long Island, New York, to stop Soviet diplomats using its recreational facilities despite State Department opposition to the move.

The Glen Cove council acted because the Soviet diplomats are exempted from paying local taxes and because press reports have said that they used the top floor of the Soviet ambassador’s 40-room mansion in the town to spy on Long Island-based defence industries.

The State Department had tried to dissuade the townspeople, partly because it feared that the Soviet Union would retaliate against American diplomats in Moscow.

When its efforts at dissuasion failed, it last month referred the affair to the Justice Department, which is trying to determine whether Glen Cove is violating the civil rights of the Soviet diplomats.