In mid-December Russia announced it would temporarily close the British Council offices in Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg from January 1 over tax and legal status violations.
Tom Casey said that Russia should explain the reasons for the closure of the British Council's regional offices, adding that he could see no reasons why the organization that plays an important role in developing Russian-British cultural ties should be closed.
The non-governmental organization, which is the cultural arm of the British Embassy, promoting education and cultural programs, first established an office in Moscow in the 1990s and went on to open a further 14 offices across Russia.
The British Council has been involved in three years of legal wrangling with Russian authorities over the alleged non-payment of tax and questions over its legal status.
The Foreign Office and the British Council have repeatedly denied tax laws have been breached, and said the council was operating in compliance with both Russian and U.K. legislation.
In October the council said it would close all its offices in Russia apart from in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg, where Britain has an embassy and consular offices. The council said the decision was made due to a change in the organization's global strategy.
In defiance of the Foreign Ministry's demands to close down operations, Natalia Minchenko, marketing director at the British Council in Moscow, said the British Council had "no plans to shut down in either Yekaterinburg or St. Petersburg," adding that they would "continue working."
Russia's Foreign Ministry said there was no bilateral status agreement in place to permit the opening of the organization's regional offices, and the British Council had in fact made no requests to open the branches.
Britain argued that the British Council's presence in Russia was "entirely consistent with international law, including the Vienna Conventions," with the British foreign secretary also referring to "a 1994 U.K./Russia Agreement on Cooperation in Education, Science and Culture, signed by Russia."
