See below for various "nuances" on the possible closure, AJ
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Johnson's Russia List
2007-#255
13 December 2007
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#42
Washington Post
December 13, 2007
Russia Orders 2 British Offices Closed;
Move Against Cultural Agency Tied to Dispute in Litvinenko Case
Peter Finn; Washington Post Foreign Service

MOSCOW, Dec. 12 - Russia on Wednesday ordered the 
closure of two offices of the British Council, 
the international cultural arm of the British 
government. The council responded that it has "no 
plans" to shutter the offices.

Russian authorities have long subjected the 
council to tax probes, arguing that it has no 
legitimate diplomatic standing and is a 
for-profit enterprise. But in explaining 
Wednesday's action, senior members of the Russian 
government said the closure order was also part 
of a larger diplomat dispute over the murder in 
London of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.

"The British government undertook some actions 
which inflicted what I would call systemic damage 
to our relations, so we have to retaliate," 
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the BBC.

In Britain, the council is a registered charity 
that operates independently of the British 
government, although it is sponsored by the 
Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Offering English 
language lessons and cultural programs, it 
charges fees for some of its services, a fact 
that Russian officials have cited during years of wrangling over its status.

The council has offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg 
and Yekaterinburg. The Russian Foreign Ministry 
said in a statement Wednesday that the two 
offices outside Moscow have no "legal basis" to operate.

"The practical activity of the council was 
accompanied by violations of the Russian 
financial, tax, and other laws," Russian Foreign 
Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a 
statement, adding that "this organization is 
related to neither diplomatic nor consulate 
missions." No action was taken against the Moscow office.

British officials rejected the ministry's 
reasoning and vowed to continue the council's 
work. "We, the Council and their Russian partner 
organisations have every intention that the 
British Council's programmes will continue," the 
British Foreign Office said in a statement. "The 
Council's activities in Russia are fully 
compliant both with Russian and international 
law, under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations."

The British Council "is a cultural, 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 Foreign Office statement said.

The British Council office in Yekaterinburg is at 
the same location as the British Consulate, but 
the office in St. Petersburg is separate from the 
consulate there. It is unclear how the Russians 
will enforce their order if the British defy it.

The dispute adds to a sharp deterioration in 
British-Russian relations growing from the 
November 2006 poisoning death in London of 
Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence agent 
who became a vocal critic of President Vladimir 
Putin. In May, Britain requested the extradition 
of a Russian who is the prime suspect in the 
case. Russia refused, leading to tit-for-tat 
expulsions of four diplomats from each country in July.

Russian officials say that the country's 
constitution bars them from extraditing any 
Russian citizen and that, in any case, Britain 
has so far provided no compelling evidence 
implicating suspect Andrei Lugovoy in Litvinenko's death.

Lugovoy was recently elected to parliament on the 
ticket of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic 
Party and is now immune from prosecution in 
Russia. Russian prosecutors, at one point, had 
said they were open to trying any Russian suspect 
here if there was a case to present.

Anthony Brenton, Britain's ambassador to Russia, 
warned recently that Lugovoy would be immediately 
arrested if he set foot outside Russia.

********

#43
British Council Should Work In Compliance With RF Law - Diplomat

MOSCOW, December 12 (Itar-Tass) - The British 
Council in Russia should work in compliance with 
Russia's legislation and the norms of 
international law that regulate the openness and 
functioning of foreign cultural centres and its 
branches", Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov said.

In his meeting with British Ambassador in Moscow 
Anthony Brenton on Wednesday, the Russian 
diplomat said, "In order to create a legal base 
for the British Council's activity its work in 
St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg should be suspended by January 1, 2008."

Head of the public relations department of the 
British Council Moscow Office, Natalya Minchenko, 
said the British Council does not intend to close 
its regional offices, in particular in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.

In an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio 
station on Wednesday, Minchenko said, "The 
activity of the Council in Russia's territory 
fully responds to the norms of Russian and 
international law in compliance with the Vienna 
Convention of 1963 and an inter-governmental 
agreement on cooperation signed by Russia and Britain in 1994."

"The Council fulfils all norms of Russian tax and 
labour legislation, as well as recommendations 
linked to labour protection and safety rules," she said. In her words,

"Correspondence is being held at a diplomatic 
level, but the British Council is not a political 
organisation. It deals with education, science and culture projects."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said 
the representative offices of the British Council 
in Russia, except for its Moscow office, suspend 
their activity from January 1, 2008.

"In the conditions of a lack of a law base that 
would regulate the activity of the British 
Council on the territory of Russia, the British 
side has been informed about the
suspension from January 1 of the functioning of 
all regional branches of the British Council 
Russia except for its central office in Moscow. 
The talk is about the freezing of their work, 
including the implementation of current projects, 
until the development and conclusion of the 
mentioned Russian-British agreement," Kamynin said.

"The unfriendly acts undertaken by the British 
side in July of this year have derailed our 
efforts to prepare a bilateral agreement on a 
procedure of establishment and terms of the 
activity of culture and information centres," the diplomat said.

"In the middle of October, the British Council 
declared the intention to wind up at the 
beginning of 2008 the activity of its regional 
branches on Russia's territory, except for 
offices in cities where there are diplomatic and 
consular offices of Great Britain".

Kamynin said a "non-normal situation has arisen 
where the Council has been working on the 
territory of our country for a long time without any legal grounds for
that".

"A bilateral agreement on the establishment 
procedure and terms of the activity of the 
culture and information centres should have 
solved these issues. This document is called to 
create a necessary law basis both for the 
activity of the Council in Russia and for the 
possible opening in the future of science and 
culture centres of Russia in Britain," Kamynin said.

"However, the unfriendly acts undertaken by the 
British side in this year's July, which were 
accompanied by the adoption of a whole set of 
discrimination measures, have derailed our efforts to prepare this
document".

"Pursuing this activity under the 'front' of 
consulates in St. Petersburg and in 
Yekaterinburg, the British Council violates the 
1963 Convention on Consular Relations, as this 
organisations does not have any relation to 
diplomatic and consular representative offices," 
the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

"Naturally, we by no means question the right of 
the consular offices to assist the development of 
comprehensive cultural and scientific relations 
between the states. It is quite apparent that 
this activity cannot be pursued under the front 
of other organisations that have no relation to 
either diplomatic or consular offices".

"The British Council began its activity in Russia 
in the early 1990s. Initially opening its office 
on Moscow, the Council founded in subsequent 
years, without respective legal registration, a 
total 15 regional representative offices. In 
violation of the procedure of establishment and 
terms of the activity of foreign culture and 
information centres on the territory of Russia, 
the British side neither received nor asked for 
consent for opening these regional branches. At 
that, violations of Russian legislature in 
financial, tax and other spheres by the Council 
have repeatedly taken place," Kamynin said.

"The 1994 agreement on cooperation in science, 
education and culture, which the British side 
cited, alleging the legitimacy of the activity in 
Russia of the Council's regional offices, in 
respect of the British Council has the character 
of a frame document that does not define its 
juridical status, the opening procedure and terms 
of functioning of its branches," Kamynin said.

He stressed that the "Russian side always adhered 
the development of relations with Britain in the 
fields of education, science and culture that are 
an important constituent part of our interstate relations."

"At the same time, this does not mean that the 
activity of organisations working in these 
spheres, including the British Council, may come 
to contradiction with norms of Russian 
legislature and international law," Kamynin said.

In addition, Titov and Brenton discussed Kosovo's 
settlement. Titov said it is necessary "to 
continue diplomatic efforts to search for an 
acceptable solution to the problem on the base of 
the Troika mediators in order to build a dialogue 
between the sides and overcome mutual distrust".

The Russian diplomat stressed that it is very 
dangerous "to take unilateral decisions, which 
wreck legal norms and stability, and lead to 
arbitrary interpretation of U.N. Security Council 
resolution 1244 and other documents on Kosovo' s settlement".

********