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