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Russia's Lavrov accuses Britain of "violating international law"
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 14 - 12 - 2007


Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slammed
Britain Friday for knowingly "violating international law," as Russia
ordered British Council offices across Russia to close, according to dpa.
Anglo-Russian relations have sunk to Cold War lows after Moscow
refused to extradite an ex-KGB bodyguard suspected of murdering
Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London, culminating in the
tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats in May.
"The British side has deliberately deteriorated relations with
Russia," said Lavrov, accusing Britain of ignoring international law
in the activities of its embassy's cultural arm in Russia.
Russia on Wednesday ordered the British Council, a government-
funded organization promoting British culture abroad, to close its 15
regional offices across Russia, which it said were in breach of the
1963 Vienna Convention on consular activities.
The British government has denied the claim, and refused to
comply.
"In the situation around the British Council, our British partners
are trying to manipulate the international law on top of violating
Russian legislation," Lavrov was quoted as saying by news agency
Interfax on Friday.
The Council has been involved in a 13-year row over its legal
status. It sees itself as the cultural arm of the British Embassy and
is not registered as a non-governmental organization under new
Russian laws.
With escalating tension between the two countries in recent
months, human rights activist see little hope of resolving the
council's legal status, which is based on a 1994 cooperation
agreement with Russia.
Lavrov on Friday explicitly said Russia had suspended drafting a
new agreement on the cultural centre's working "as retaliation for
the expelling of several Russian diplomats from London."
The British Embassy meanwhile has rejected any connection between
the British Council's activities and the Litvinenko case.
Spokespersons for the Kremlin refused to comment on the situation
Friday. But the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi protested the British
Council's activities, targeting British Ambassador Anthony Brenton
with pickets in front of the embassy this month.
Lavrov personally named Brenton in Friday's statment, accusing him
of "ignoring international law."


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