Seeing Red

Sadat expels 1,000 Soviets

Just eleven days after he had jailed some 1,600 of his domestic opponents, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat last week turned on the Soviets in his country, accusing them of engaging in a variety of conspiracies aimed at overthrowing his regime. He expelled Soviet Ambassador Vladimir Polyakov, along with six members of the Soviet embassy staff, two journalists, and an estimated 1,000 Russian technicians, who were working on various industrial projects, and their dependents. It was the sharpest rebuke Sadat had administered to Moscow since he threw out some 17,000 Soviet technicians and military advisers in 1972.

All the alleged conspiracies apparently involved Soviet agents and Egyptian dissidents. One plot, according to the Cairo government, featured an Egyptian group, known to Sadat's agents as "the Swamp," that included former Deputy Prime Minister Abdel Salam Zayyat, several former ministers and a number of professors and journalists. Some were alleged to be Communists, others were members of the left-wing National Progressive Unionist Party. Their crime, charged the government, was to incite workers, arouse the masses and "fan the flames of sectarianism" by preparing leaf lets accusing the Coptic Christians of engaging in anti-Muslim activities. The government released footage reminiscent of the FBI's Abscam films, allegedly showing some members of the group entering the Soviet embassy in Cairo and attending secret meetings.

Was Sadat's latest action justified by actual conspiracies? The U.S. believes Moscow had quietly supported dissident groups in Egypt but seems to know of no recent missteps by the So viets that would have precipitated the expulsions.

Some of Sadat's overseas critics suspected that he was using the allegations of Soviet misconduct as a means of justifying his crackdown on domestic dissidents.

But the Israelis, anxious that Sadat retain power as a stabilizing force in the region, believe the Soviets were up to more serious mischief, coordinating efforts among the various sources of opposition to the Egyptian President during the recent demonstrations. The Israelis also fear that agents of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's strongman and Sadat's implacable enemy, have penetrated Egypt's armed forces and intelligence community. The Israelis quietly passed on their findings to Sadat, the friend they want to keep in office even as they oppose him in the struggle to resolve the issue of Palestinian autonomy.

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