BRITISH COUNCIL CONFLICT CONTINUES TO WORSEN

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 000103 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/16/2018 TAGS: PREL KDEM PGOV RS SUBJECT: BRITISH COUNCIL CONFLICT CONTINUES TO WORSEN Classified By: DCM Daniel A. Russell. Reasons: 1.4 (b)(d). ¶1. (C) Summary: The British Embassy told us January 16 that its efforts to call a "time out" in the spiraling conflict between HMG and the GOR over the status and presence of the offices of the British Council in Russia have seemingly been rejected. In January 15 - 16 meetings British Ambassador Brenton and the Prime Minister's Foreign Policy Advisor Simon McDonald proposed to the Presidential Administration's Prikhodko and MFA DFM Titov a "time out" in the conflict over the continued British intention to extradite Andrey Lugovoy in the Litvinenko murder case and on Russia's pressure on the British Council, and that the sides return to work on "areas of mutual interest." The British overture appears to have been rebuffed. The Council's Russian staffs in Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg have been called in by the FSB, and the tax police have notified Russian financial management staff that they may be subject to criminal investigations. The Russian traffic police, with a television crew in tow, detained British Council St. Petersburg Director Stephen Kinnock January 15 for alleged drunk driving. Kinnock, the son of Lord Kinnock, is accredited as a diplomat by the Russian government. The Russian offensive has been accompanied by allegations in the media that British Council employees are spies. End summary. January 14 Russian Aide-Memoire -------------- ¶2. (C) The British Deputy Head of Mission provided the DCM January 16 with an English-language version of a GOR aide-memoire, presented to the UK Ambassador by Deputy Foreign Minister Titov on January 14. In it, the GOR expresses surprise that the British Council offices re-opened on January 14, in defiance of a Russian "request" that they cease operations by January 1. The note rejects British assertions that there are no grounds for closing the Council offices and alleges that the Council offices are in violation of the 1995 Russian government decree "On the Establishment and Conditions for the Operation of Foreign Cultural-Information Centers on the Territory of the Russian Federation." That decree, the GOR maintains, requires the agreement of Russian authorities to the opening of the central office and regional branches of the British Council. Agreement was never received or requested, the aide-memoire maintains. 
 ¶3. (C) The GOR in the aide-memoire maintains that a 1994 "Agreement on Co-operation in the Sphere of Culture, Science, and Education" is a framework document, "which does not define the legal status, the procedure for opening, nor the conditions for functioning" of the British Council in Russia." Negotiation of a supplementary, bilateral agreement, the aide-memoire, says has been halted by the "unfriendly actions of the UK in July" 2007. The aide-memoire closes by noting that the GOR will in response pursue collection of outstanding tax owed, cease issuing visas to new St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg staff sent to support Council activities and end extending accreditation for current staff. Should the work of the Council continue, the GOR per the aide-memoire "reserves the right to take further steps, including those affecting the British Council office in Moscow and withdrawing of accreditation of the staff of diplomatic and consular representatives involved in British Council activities. Britain Calls for "Time Out" -------------- ¶4. (C) On January 15, the Prime Minister's Foreign Policy Advisor Simon McDonald had met with the Presidential Administration's Prikhodko and DFM Titov. McDonald told both that the "current course is not sustainable," and proposed a "time out" in the ongoing disputes over Andrey Lugovoy, whom the British have asked to extradite as a suspect in the assassination of Litvinenko. McDonald suggested a "time out," during which both sides would refrain from provocative actions and public statements. The idea was a cooling period to allow both sides to focus on areas of common interest. ¶5. (C) MacDonald's meeting with Prikhodko was, according to the British DHM "chilly and choreographed." The subsequent encounter with Titov went "better," but British hopes that Russia would agree to a "time out" were dashed when the FSB on January 15 (at about the same time as McDonald's conversations),warned seven Russian national British Council staff in Yekaterinburg and sixteen in St. Petersburg against further involvement with the British. Next, the tax police informed local financial management employees in St. Petersburg that they could be open to criminal investigations. Late the evening of January 15, six Russian employees in St. Petersburg were visited at home by police from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. ¶6. (C) Later the same night, in St. Petersburg, British Council Director Steve Kinnock, the son of former Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock, was stopped by traffic police, with a camera crew in tow, and accused of drunk driving. Kinnock locked himself in his car and called the British Consulate, which sent a consular officer to extricate Kinnock from the standoff. Kinnock is an accredited diplomat with full privileges and immunities. Media Bandwagon -------------- ¶7. (SBU) The British - Russian stand-off has received much media play here. The website gazeta.ru gave prominent coverage to Foreign Affairs Minister Lavrov's suggestion that British behavior "is evidence that the British side is nostalgic for colonial times." Also in the press was the allegation of retired KGB Major General Yuriy Drozdov that the "activities of the British Council are directly linked to the activities of" British intelligence whose agents are working, with the United States, to divide and control Russia. ¶8. (C) The British Ambassador apparently got little satisfaction in meetings today with Titov and other senior officials, which led to the tough statement late on January 16 by Foreign Secretary Miliband, who publicly warned Russia that intimidation of British Council staff was completely unacceptable. To state the obvious, it sounds to us like the row over the British Council is likely to get worse before it gets better. BURNS