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LONDON-President Vladimir Putin's order to have British Council offices closed in Russia has plunged relations to the level of the sub-zero temperatures in Moscow.Russian-born Council staff were roused from their beds last week and told they were working for an "illegal organization" and could face imprisonment. In London, the Foreign Office insisted the Council's role simply is to promote British culture and its image abroad.But Putin's intelligence service, FSB-a successor to the KGB he once ran-has claimed the Council acts as "a cover" for the British foreign Secret Intelligence Service, MI6.Meanwhile, Jonathan Evans-the chief of Britain's counter-intelligence and security agency, MI5-has sent a confidential letter to all British companies that trade with Russia, warning them they "are now more than ever under attack from Russian state organizations, including their intelligence service."The concern of MI5 and MI6 is that matters could reach crisis level as Putin-named "Person of the Year" by Time magazine-prepares to hand over the reins of power after seven years in the Kremlin."His suspicions of the West, especially Britain, border on paranoia.It stems from his great vision of reviving Russian greatness," Evans has told his staff.Last year, Putin sent his long-range bombers to the verge of British airspace.The action was seen as an attempt to test Britain's air defenses.Since then, he has continued to bluster against Britain. An MI6 profile describes him as a "macho KGB spy, a judo expert and a throwback to the era when the state security system, which began with Lenin's Checka in 1917, was the crucial glue that held fast the USSR."As in the days of Noah....
