Word: mitterrand
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...wisps of mystery surrounding the affair, one thing was clear: Mitterrand was sending a message both to the Soviets and to his NATO allies, best summed up by the explanation...
Government Spokesman Max Gallo: "France has shown that she has no intention of being a soft underbelly." Said a Western Ambassador in Paris: "I think François Mitterrand is just fed up with the brazen Soviet espionage in France." Since he came to power 23 months ago, the Socialist President has demonstrated that the presence of four Communist ministers in his government does not deter him from pursuing a tougher policy against the Soviets than his predecessors...
...sooner had the French announced the mass expulsions than speculation began to mount that Mitterrand's decision was part of a concerted Western counterespionage effort made possible by the defection of a well-placed Soviet agent. Diplomats recalled that Britain's 1971 ouster of 105 Soviet personnel was triggered by a KGB defector who fingered his former colleagues. Moreover, the French acted a week after Britain threw out two Soviet diplomats and a journalist. In Rome a month earlier, Italian police had arrested the deputy director of the Rome Aeroflot office as he was obtaining microfilmed plans...
...British and U.S. intelligence sources were quick to dismiss the possibility of any link between the French crackdown and expulsions elsewhere in Western Europe. French officials pointed out that the expelled Soviets had been under investigation long before Kuzichkin came in from the cold. Another hypothesis to help explain Mitterrand's move was the unresolved murder in mid-February of Lieut. Colonel Bernard Nut, a top French agent, although officials in Paris insisted that the incident was not "decisive" (see box). Analysts also rejected the theory that Mitterrand had been angered by the arrest a week earlier...
According to U.S. officials, Soviet intelligence has given France priority because of the country's advanced aeronautical and nuclear weapons technology, as well as its "pivotal political role" in Western Europe. Mitterrand last month was shown a report prepared by the DST that claimed that the KGB has penetrated an estimated 30% of classified French military and industrial technology. Among prime espionage targets: advanced French aircraft carriers and the Exocet air-to-surface missile. Soviet agents have been prowling naval bases like Toulon, on the Mediterranean, which houses two carriers and the nuclear submarine Rubis...