Russia orders British Council offices to close

Russia yesterday ordered a British cultural organization to suspend all of its operations outside Moscow at the beginning of 2008, the latest move in a long-running dispute.

Russian officials accused the British Council, a non-governmental organization that acts as the cultural department of the British Embassy, of operating illegally in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said British Council operations in those two cities violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Russian officials have long claimed the council is a for-profit organization subject to taxation.