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U.S. Plays Down Impact Of Spy Scandal
WASHINGTON, March 23 (News Agencies) - The United States held out the prospect of further retaliation Friday, but sought to play down the impact on U.S.-Russia ties of the worst spy scandal since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell indicated that, for the time being at least, the round of tit-for-tat expulsions of 50 diplomats for each side was considered closed.
Bush, whose two-month old administration is encountering friction with Moscow on a broad sweep of foreign policy issues, suggested that ties would survive the spy flap and may even prosper.
"I believe we can have good, strong relations with the Russians. They'll just understand my administration is one that takes firm positions when we think we're right," said Bush, who approved the U.S. expulsions announced Thursday, deeming them the "right thing to do."
His remarks came hours after U.S. officials said that Russia had ordered 50 American diplomats out of the country in full retaliation for Washington's expulsion announced Thursday.
Bush's spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president was aware of the Russian retaliation and considered the affair closed but would not rule out similar "appropriate action" in the future.
Powell indicated that the United States would carefully weigh the Russian response before determining whether Washington required any further action.
"We have not received anything from them yet in the way of names and details, so it would be inappropriate and not useful to comment on what might happen if the response seems not to be appropriate or out of proportion or balance in some way," Powell said.
"We are anxious to get this matter behind us and at this point, as of this afternoon, we still consider it a matter that is behind us, but we haven't seen the totality of the Russian response yet," he told a small group of reporters at the State Department.
Earlier Friday, U.S. officials confirmed that Russia, which announced it was expelling four American diplomats immediately, had in fact ordered an additional 46 to go as well by July 1st.
The total - 50 - mirrors the number of Russian diplomats ordered expelled from the United States on Thursday: four within the next 10 days and 46 by July 1st.
The worst Russia-U.S. spy row in 15 years erupted following the Washington arrest last month of top FBI agent, Robert Hanssen, for allegedly spying for Moscow since the days of the Soviet Union. The veteran counter-intelligence agent is accused of passing volumes of top-secret information to the Russians.
Amid heated rhetoric from Moscow concerning the U.S. action, President Putin struck a more conciliatory tone. When asked by journalists in Stockholm, where he is attending an EU summit, whether the spy flap would damage bilateral ties, he said "I don't think so."
Bush has kept Russia at arms length since his inauguration in January and has no immediate plans to meet Putin before a G8 meeting of the world's leading industrialized countries in June.
The espionage row "doesn't preclude the ability for Putin and me, for example, to meet at some point in time and have a good, honest discussion," said Bush.
Bush's contacts with Putin have been limited to just one 15-minute telephone and an exchange of letters since he took office January 20th.
The spy flap is an added irritant to relations soured by in differences over U.S. plans for a missile defense shield, Russian sales of arms to Iran, and the fighting in Chechnya.
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