Russia to close offices of British Council
MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia's foreign ministry said Wednesday it would temporarily close regional offices of the British Council cultural organization, marking a further deterioration in bilateral relations.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown led a chorus of criticism of the move, saying the body was "fully entitled" to continue its work promoting the English language and wider British culture in Russia.
A spokeswoman for the British Council insisted both of the organization's regional offices would continue working beyond a January 1 deadline.
Russia's foreign ministry said that the British Council had been informed that the work of the regional branches would be suspended.
A statement from the ministry cited "the absence of a legal basis regulating the activities of the British Council in the Russian Federation."
The ban was to apply to all the British Council's branches, bar its Moscow headquarters, from January 1 until the body's legal status is regulated, the statement said.
Brown rejected the Russian statement and called on the British Council to continue its work.
"We, the Council and its Russian partner organizations have every intention that its programme will continue," the British prime minister said in comments relayed by spokesman Michael Ellam.
In Moscow a spokeswoman for the British Council, Natalya Minchenko, told AFP that the organization had "no plans to shut down either in Yekaterinburg or Saint Petersburg as everything we do in Russia is in line with bilateral cultural agreements and with Russian legislation."
The dispute is the latest of a series of diplomatic spats between Moscow and London which came to a head over Russia's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the main suspect in the London murder with radioactive poison of ex-Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko last year.
In a statement Wednesday, Britain's Foreign office rejected any attempts to link the British Council's fate to wider political disputes between Moscow and London.
The British Council "is a cultural and not a political institution and we strongly reject any attempt to link it to Russia's failure to co-operate with our efforts to bring the murder of Alexander Litvinenko to justice," the statement said.
That dispute has already lead to the tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats and brought angry exchanges reminiscent of Cold War lows.
"The closure of the British Council is certainly a political decision," said analyst Yevgeny Volk, who heads the Moscow office of the US think-tank the Heritage Foundation. "It has just been caught up in this struggle between the two countries' secret services."
However, Britain can also be accused of politicizing the dispute, Volk said: "Gordon Brown seems to be playing tough with Russia to improve his ratings and this looks likely to continue."
"I think it's a very sad fact that there are two countries in which the council is not allowed to operate. That is Burma and Iran," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said, using the former name for Myanmar.
"I just hope the announcement today from Russia does not signal they are taking steps down that road. That is unwholesome company in which to be."
The British Council has been in conflict for years with the Russian government over alleged irregularities in its legal status. It currently has two regional branches in Russia, down from 15 three years ago.
While officially an independent non-profit charity, the British Council receives a large part of its funding from Britain's Foreign Office.
Moscow claims that as a profit-making entity, the British Council is subject to taxes on its revenue. British officials maintain the council is a cultural part of Britain's embassy and as such has diplomatic immunity.
