Russia warns Britain on cultural offices

MOSCOW: The Russian Foreign Ministry told Britain on Thursday that reopening two offices of a British cultural organization would inflame already tense relations between the countries.
Russia in December ordered offices of the British Council in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg to close as of Jan. 1. The offices are closed for the winter holidays in Russia, but British officials say they will defy the order and resume operations Jan. 14.A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mikhail Kamynin,(picture left) said in a statement that Russia expected the operations to be permanently closed and "any other actions would be provocative and build up bilateral tensions." He appeared to suggest that Russia could also order the council's main office in Moscow to close."The activity of the British Council in Moscow and Russian regions has no legal foundation, " Kamynin said. "We have not raised the question of the British Council's office in Moscow thus far, and this is an act of good will."The British Council is technically a nongovernmental organization, but it acts as the cultural department of the British Embassy. Russia contends it acts as a for-profit organization. Kathryn Board, head of the British Council's overseas network, said the organization complied with Russian law, a 1994 Britain-Russia agreement and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations."If there is a law we don't comply with, the Russian government has yet to point it out," she said by telephone from London.British Council officials have been in contact with the Russian government, seeking an agreement that would allow the offices to open without incident, Board said."We still have a week or so to go and we very much hope this will be seen through to a proper conclusion," she said.The order against the British Council comes amid tensions stemming from the 2006 killing in London of the former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko.Russia has refused Britain's request to extradite the man it considers the main suspect; this summer Britain expelled four Russian diplomats to protest Moscow's stand, and Russia in turn expelled four British diplomats.Russia meanwhile is angry at Britain for its refusal to extradite the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky and Akhmed Zakayev, a Chechen separatist envoy.Kamynin, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, accused Britain of "politicizing" the dispute over the British Council.A British Embassy spokesman, commenting anonymously in line with official policy, called Kamynin's assessment "hypocritical in the extreme."Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that the British Council closure order was issued as a "countermeasure" to the expulsions of diplomats.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/03/europe/russia.php

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