Russia to Act Against U.K. Consulates as Rift Deepens

Source from:  By Henry Meyer and Sebastian Alison Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) 01/16/2008

Russia stepped up its confrontation with Britain, saying it will move against British consulates after the U.K. defied an order to close its cultural offices outside Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it would stop issuing visas for U.K. diplomats in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg who support the British Council's activities. It also threatened to take action against the cultural body's main office in Moscow. ``Given that our demands have not been heeded, the Russian side is compelled to take a range of administrative and legal measures'' against the U.K., the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site today. Relations between Russia and the U.K. have sunk to a post- Cold War low since Russian authorities refused to extradite a former KGB bodyguard wanted for the 2006 murder in London of dissident ex-Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko. Russia last month ordered the U.K.'s cultural promotion body to close its regional offices by Jan. 1. The Foreign Ministry summoned U.K. Ambassador Tony Brenton to inform him of the retaliatory measures after the British Council reopened its St. Petersburg branch today, five days after it resumed activities in Yekaterinburg. Both offices were shut over the Russian New Year holidays. ``We are open and we plan to continue,'' James Kennedy, the British Council's Russia director, said in an interview in the St. Petersburg office, located on the city's main thoroughfare, Nevsky Prospekt. `Political' Agenda Both the U.K. and Russia for domestic political reasons appear determined not to back down and the British Council may be forced out entirely, said Yevgeny Volk, a Moscow-based analyst from the U.S. research group, the Heritage Foundation. Kennedy condemned Russia for pursuing a ``political'' agenda. ``We are dismayed at the line that's being taken, because we believe we're operating legally here,'' he said. Analysts say both sides have an interest in ensuring the dispute doesn't harm business relations. The U.K. is the largest foreign investor in Russia. U.K. companies including BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, British American Tobacco Plc and Cadbury Schweppes Plc invested almost $15 billion in Russia in the six years through 2006. `Turn the Screws' The U.K. ambassador insisted that Britain has no intention of obeying the closure order. Brenton warned in a phone interview in Moscow today that Russian efforts to ``turn the screws'' on the British Council risked ties ``getting so bad'' that diplomatic conflict could resume. The U.K. in July expelled four Russian diplomats, triggering a tit-for-tat response, and froze cooperation with Russia's Federal Security Service, the domestic successor agency to the KGB. This followed Russia's refusal to hand over ex-KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi, whom U.K. prosecutors want to put on trial for the November 2006 lethal radiation poisoning in London of Litvinenko. The Russian constitution forbids extradition. ``I don't think the U.K. can do very much in response -- it'll likely be another round of tit for tat where you get rid of some of our diplomats and we'll get rid of some of yours,'' Spyros Economides of the London School of Economics' European Institute said in a telephone interview. Double Standards Litvinenko became a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin after fleeing Russia and he received political asylum in the U.K. He accused the Russian leader of ordering his murder in a deathbed statement. The Kremlin dismissed the accusation as ``absurd.'' The Russian government accuses the U.K., which has become a haven for Putin opponents, of double standards for refusing to extradite self-exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky and others. Berezovsky, who has rejected as ``politically motivated'' his fraud conviction by a Russian court in absentia last November, is funding opposition groups. The British Council, which promotes cultural exchanges such as U.K. film festivals in Russia and educational opportunities for Russians in the U.K., has already scaled back its activities. After a series of Russian probes into how the council was handling its finances, the U.K. last year closed offices in Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Sochi and Volgograd. The three remaining Russian centers are in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. The Foreign Ministry said Russian authorities would seek unpaid taxes from the St. Petersburg office's English language teaching income. And the British Council must accept that it is operating without a legal basis, the ministry said. ``We expect our U.K. partners to stop ignoring reality and step back from further confrontation, which would have extremely negative consequences for U.K.-Russian relations,'' the ministry said. To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in St. Petersburg, Russia through the Moscow newsroom at Hmeyer4@bloomberg.net ; Sebastian Alison in Moscow at salison@bloomberg.net . Enditem