LONDON, January 17 (RIA Novosti) - The British Council's chief executive accused Russian authorities on Thursday of conducting a "campaign of intimidation" against staff at the organization's regional offices.
Earlier in the day the British Council's office in the Russian Urals city of Yekaterinburg suspended its work, a day after the St. Petersburg office closed following accusations of legal status irregularities and tax arrears, and amid growing tensions between Russia and the U.K.
Martin Davidson said in a statement that as part of Russia's measures to put pressure on the council, a cultural arm of the British government, 10 members of staff had received late-night visits from Russian tax police, and that 20 staffers had been interviewed by the Federal Security Service, or FSB.
"The interviews had little to do with their work and were clearly aimed at exerting undue pressure on innocent individuals," he said.
"The Russian authorities have made it impossible for us to operate in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg so I have taken the decision to suspend operations in both cities," he said.
However, he said the British Council would continue its work through its office in Moscow.
The dispute is the latest blow to relations between the two countries, already strained over the murder of former Russian security officer Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
Observers have called the claims against the British Council politically motivated. Moscow has insisted its demands are legitimate and urged greater respect for national laws.
Konstantin Kosachyov, who heads the international affairs committee at the lower house of Russia's parliament, said no legal impediment would remain to the British Council in Russia as soon as it brought its operations in line with Russian law.
"I guess Russia is the only place where it [the British Council] has been attempting to act in line with British law. Russia is not a banana republic, we have a functioning legal system and any foreign organization, irrespective of the type of activities it carries out, has to comply with Russian laws," the parliamentarian said.
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Thursday that Russian authorities have been unable to provide genuine legal arguments to back up their position on the British Council, and have resorted to threatening members of staff to force the closure of the organization's offices.
However, Miliband said, his office would not take retaliatory action following Russia's ban on the British Council. Instead, it would persevere with a number of administrative measures it had launched against Russia last summer in response to Moscow's refusal to extradite businessman Andrei Lugovoi, the chief suspect in the 2006 Litvinenko murder case.
He also referred to earlier visa refusals for a number of Russian officials and the previous suspension of visa facilitation talks.
Miliband pledged not to close a Russian art exhibition currently showing in London. He also said that no action would be taken against the two Russian diplomats in charge of cultural programs at the Russian embassy in London.
The British Council offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg defied Russian authorities' orders to close by January 1 and resumed work after the New Year holidays.
The row over the British Council could soon be considered by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the PACE chairman, Rene van der Linden, said in Moscow on Thursday, adding, however, that no official application for a discussion had yet been filed.
