Britain defies order to shut cultural offices in Russian cities; Russia calls it provocation

Russia responded angrily Monday to Britain's defiance of its order to close two offices of a cultural organization, calling it a deliberate provocation and vowing punitive measures including restrictions on entry visas for consular officials.

Britain refused to back down. Its ambassador said the British Council offices would remain open and that any Russian action against the organization would violate international law.

The British Council offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg reopened after the holiday break, despite Moscow's warnings that defying orders to suspend their operations by Jan. 1 would worsen bilateral relations.

Ties between London and Moscow already are at a post-Cold War low, badly frayed by the 2006 poisoning death in Britain of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Moscow last month ordered the closure of the two regional offices of the British Council, a nonprofit organization that acts as the cultural arm of the British Embassy, saying they were operating illegally. British officials dispute that claim, and the offices reopened on schedule after a holiday break.

The defiance prompted Russia's Foreign Ministry to summon British Ambassador Anthony Brenton for a dressing down.

"The ambassador was told that the Russian side sees such actions as a deliberate provocation aimed at inciting tension in Russian-British relations," the ministry said.

It promised "a series of administrative and legal measures," including moves to recover what it said are back taxes owed by the British Council's St. Petersburg office.

In addition, Russia said it will stop issuing visas for new employees assigned to posts related to the British Council at Britain's consulates in St. Petersburg and the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, and will not renew the accreditation of existing staffers.

"We expect our British partners to stop ignoring obvious facts and refrain from a line of further confrontation that is fraught with the most negative consequences for Russian-British relations," the ministry said.

Britain remained defiant.

"I said to him ... that the British Council is working entirely legally and it will continue, therefore, to work _ and any Russian action against it would be a breach of international law," Brenton told reporters after meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov.

The ministry warned that keeping the offices operating could lead to "additional measures, including in relation to the British Council office in Moscow" _ an apparent warning that the organization's main office in Russia could be shut.

Russia contends that the British Council acts as a for-profit organization, and said St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg offices violate the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. British authorities say the organization's operations comply with that pact as well as Russian law and a 1994 bilateral agreement.

"We have received no information to indicate that our work is not legal," James Kennedy, director of the British Council in Russia, told reporters at the St. Petersburg office after it opened Monday.

The dispute has been politically charged amid broader tension over Litvinenko's 2006 poisoning death in London. Russia has refused Britain's request to extradite the man it considers the main suspect. Last year, Britain expelled four Russian diplomats in protest, and Russia in turn kicked out four British diplomats.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last month called the British Council order a "countermeasure" to the diplomat expulsion.

"Mr. Lavrov himself made it very clear that the actions that the Russians are taking against the British Council stem from the disagreement that happened at the time that we tried to extradite Mr. Lugovoi. So they have made a very clear political connection," Brenton said. "We think that connection is a mistake."

"There is an issue about Mr. Lugovoi ... but to turn that issue into an attack on an institution that is valuable to Russia, and valuable to the United Kingdom, is frankly mystifying," he said.

Brenton said "we need to be quite careful to prevent this situation from infecting all the other pieces of business which we need to work on together."

Russia also has been angry at Britain for years over its refusal to extradite Kremlin critic and billionaire Boris Berezovsky and Chechen separatist envoy Akhmed Zakayev.

President Vladimir Putin and his government have voiced concerns about foreign organizations operating in Russia, accused them of meddling and seeking to undermine the government.

___

Associated Press writer Irina Titova contributed to this report from St. Petersburg.