January 02, 2008	Wednesday	Zilhaj 22, 1428

MOSCOW, Jan 1: The British Embassy in Moscow said on Tuesday it would defy a Russian order to close two offices of a British cultural organisation.

The refusal to shut the British Council offices in the cities of St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg could prompt another confrontation with Russian authorities. Tension between the nations has been driven to a high point by discord over the killing in Britain of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Russia last month ordered the offices to be closed as of Jan 1, saying the British Council’s offices outside Moscow were operating illegally. Russian officials have long claimed the council is a for-profit organisation subject to taxation.

British officials say the offices of the British Council – a non-governmental organisation that acts as the cultural department of the British Embassy – fully conform with a 1994 Britain-Russia agreement and with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

“We’ve made our position very clear,” a British Embassy spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. “There is a very sound legal basis for the British Council to operate, and that’s what they’ll be doing.”

The offices are scheduled to reopen Jan 14 after a holiday break, the spokesman said. It was unclear what action, if any, Russian authorities would take to prevent the regional offices from opening.

The British Embassy spokesman said it would be “very unwise” for the Russian government to put British Council employees at risk.

In the midst of an official Russian holiday that ends Jan 9, Russian Foreign Ministry officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The organisation’s Moscow office has not been ordered to close.—AP