We have suspended our operations in St Petersburg and Ekaterinburg following a significant worsening of the situation in Russia for the British Council.
‘Our greatest concern is for the safety and wellbeing of our Russian staff and we feel that we cannot continue to operate without significant risk to them,’ said Martin Davidson, British Council Chief Executive.
Russian staff employed by the British Council in the two cities have been interviewed by the Russian State Security Police (FSB). The interviews had little to do with their work and appear to be an attempt to intimidate them.
‘It is wrong to draw cultural relations and the British Council into an international political dispute,’ commented Martin Davidson. ‘I am bitterly disappointed that the Russian authorities have sought to limit our cultural and educational links at the very time when they can be of most value.’
The Russian Government ordered the British Council to shut down our operations outside Moscow after accusing the organisation of having no legal basis for our work – a charge we deny as we work in Russia under an 1994 Cultural Agreement between the UK and Russian Governments.
In an interview with the BBC on 12 December 2007, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, linked the order to close with the UK’s expulsion of four Russian diplomats last summer.
The British Council has received strong support from other national cultural institutes across Europe for our work in Russia and statements of support from the US Government and the EU.
We remain committed to working with the people of Russia and for now will operate out of our main office in Moscow.
In 2006/07, 485,000 Russians took part in British Council projects or visited exhibitions, plays, films organised by the British Council. We answered over 338,000 enquiries about the UK and UK education and 308,000 people visited the British Council Russia website.
We have recently been instrumental in setting up 40 new joint degree programmes between Russian and UK universities and there are plans to link scores of Russian and UK schools and develop joint curriculum projects.
The British Council first opened in Russia in 1945 and closed in 1947 as the Cold War got underway. Cultural and educational contact between the two countries was maintained by a UK Government-funded Soviet Relations Committee before we were allowed to begin operations again in 1967.
See more about our work on the British Council Russia website.
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