The Foreign Service Journal, May 2007

M A Y 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 35 oday Embassy Moscow and its three consulates, various satellite posts and affil- iated outposts employ over 750 highly skilled, often bilingual, and very dedicated Foreign Service National employees. The embassy is connected to Washington with dedicated telephone lines, multiple high-speed Internet connections and DHL courier service. Complaints about life here today are of the variety, “Snow removal woke me up this morning,” “High-speed Internet service in the city is so expensive,” and “The commissary is out of Texas toast.” Just 20 years ago, however, working conditions were much more interesting. On Oct. 22, 1986, the Soviet government declared five American diplomats persona non grata, on top of five expelled the previous week. More crucially, the foreign ministry also unilaterally withdrew all 183 Foreign Service National employees from Moscow and Leningrad, plus another 77 personal maids, teachers and other private staff. Overnight, we became the only U.S. diplomatic missions in a foreign country with no Foreign Service Nationals. Relations were already strained, even before that move. The Reykjavik summit had been a disaster. On Aug. 23, 1986, the FBI had arrested Soviet U.N. employ- ee Gennadiy Zakharov for espionage; the Soviets retaliat- ed by arresting U.S. journalist Nicholas Daniloff on simi- lar charges. On Sept. 18, during Daniloff’s detention, the U.S. expelled 25 Soviet diplomats accused of espionage. The Soviets retaliated with the expulsion of five U.S. diplomats on Oct. 19. The U.S. countered by expelling five Soviet diplomats, plus 50 alleged KGB and GRU offi- cers from Washington and San Francisco, ostensibly to bring Soviet staffing to the same level (251) as U.S. staffing in Moscow (225) and Leningrad (26). The U.S. also ordered the Soviet government to cut its U.N. mission staff from 270 to 165. Washington made these moves with the knowledge that the Soviets did not employ American nationals in their missions, and an expectation that the story wasn’t over quite yet. When the Soviets responded by PNG-ing five more American diplomats, they also removed our FSNs, and limited the number of embassy guests and temporary-duty personnel. One of the embassy officers expelled was Mike Matera, the human rights officer. Kathy Kavalec remembers “the great PNG party at the nearby dacha where we waited for the newscaster to announce the expulsions, and cheered when they read out the names, probably spurred on by the beer and indignation.” When Mike was named, he carried out some cake to put on top of the KGB surveillance car stationed outside the dacha. F O C U S O N T H E F S A S A C A R E E R R ECALLING A LL -P URPOSE D UTY IN R USSIA T WO DECADES AGO , E MBASSY M OSCOW AND C ONSULATE G ENERAL L ENINGRAD BECAME THE ONLY U.S. DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY WITH NO FSN S . B Y A LLAN M USTARD T