Informed sources here said today that reports from Moscow seemed to indicate that the Soviet Government planned no further moves against Ephraim Paz, the third secretary of the Israel Embassy in Moscow. Izvestia, the Government newspaper, accused Paz Monday of distributing “dirty Zionist propaganda” in the Soviet Union.
Those reports, the sources said, indicated that the Soviet authorities did not intend to expel Paz or to declare him persona non grata, as they did with Second Secretary David Gavish in August.
It was believed here that the Izvestia attack on Mr. Paz and the expulsion of Mr. Gavish were undertaken at the urging of the Soviet Secret Service which wants to discourage as completely as possible the expected attendance by Russian Jews at High Holy Day services.
Meanwhile, another anti-Israel attack was published in the Soviet press today. Sovietskaya Byelorussia published an article charging that Israelis were living under a “capitalist and imperialist regime.”
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