EU institutes back British Council in Russia row

The Union Jack flag flies at the British embassy across the river from the Ukraina Hotel in Moscow July 19, 2007. European cultural institutes have sent a letter to the Russian government expressing deep concern over moves against the British government's cultural arm, which is caught up in a diplomatic row between London and Moscow.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - European cultural institutes have sent a letter to the Russian government expressing deep concern over moves against the British government's cultural arm, which is caught up in a diplomatic row between London and Moscow.

Signed by bodies such as the Goethe and Cervantes institutes, the letter said an order to the British Council to halt operations in two cities outside Moscow from January 1 amounted to "discriminatory action".

"This decision constitutes a cause for deep concern for all national institutes for culture from EU countries working in Russia and is a continuation of a series of obstacles which some of these institutes have to face," said the letter to Minister of Culture Alexander Sokolov, obtained by Reuters.

The letter of support was signed on behalf of cultural institutes in 18 EU countries and government cultural departments of four more countries, including France and Poland.

The clampdown on the council, which promotes British culture, has been directly linked by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the festering row with London over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

British-Russian relations have sunk to their lowest level since the Cold War following the poisoning of Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence official, in London last year.

Moscow's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the man Britain suspects killed Litvinenko, led to tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats. Lugovoy has denied any involvement.

On December 12, Russia's Foreign Ministry said it would temporarily ban the British Council in all regions except Moscow from January 1. It said the British Council offices outside Moscow were not properly registered.

Issued from Vienna by Emil Brix, president of the EU National Institutes of Culture, the letter ends by urging Russia "not to take discriminatory action against one of its members".

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he had discussed the offices' closure with other European colleagues at a summit in Brussels on December 14. The British Embassy in Moscow welcomed the intervention from other EU countries.

"We're grateful for the support and find it both encouraging and vindicating - both for our legal position and the value that other organisations place on the British Council," the embassy spokesman said.

The British Council operates as a not-for-profit charity run by the government in 109 countries, teaching English, providing business links and administering academic tests for students who wish to study in Britain.

(Editing by Robert Woodward)