{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-c03aa079.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-517835be.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='WRAP British Coun reopens in 2 cities, despite order to close, UK amb, Russ reax' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54bae5d8eafeecae120ec7' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54bae5d8eafeecae120ec7' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nWRAP British Coun reopens in 2 cities, despite order to close, UK amb, Russ reax\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eSt.Petersburg 1. Wide of St. Petersburg street2. Wide of entrance of British Council (BC) office3. Close up BC sign inside 4. Wide of people seated 5. Kennedy talking to journalist 6. SOUNDBITE: (English) James Kennedy, director of the...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eSt.Petersburg \u003cbr/\u003e1. Wide of St. Petersburg street\u003cbr/\u003e2. Wide of entrance of British Council (BC) office\u003cbr/\u003e3. Close up BC sign inside \u003cbr/\u003e4. Wide of people seated \u003cbr/\u003e5. Kennedy talking to journalist \u003cbr/\u003e6. SOUNDBITE: (English) James Kennedy, director of the British Council in Russia:\u003cbr/\u003e\"As far as we are aware, the British Council is working legally in Russia. There is a 1994 cultural agreement in which the British Council is named 'the implementing agency on the British side'. And we have registered for tax and complied with all the other requests of the Russian authorities in respect of legal issues.\" \u003cbr/\u003eMoscow\u003cbr/\u003e7. Wide of car with British Ambassador to Russia Anthony Brenton arriving to Russian Foreign Ministry, pan to him entering the building \u003cbr/\u003e8. Wide tilt down Foreign Ministry building \u003cbr/\u003e9. Wide of Brenton coming out of Foreign Ministry building \u003cbr/\u003e10. Cutaway cameraman \u003cbr/\u003e11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Anthony Brenton, British Ambassador to Russia:\u003cbr/\u003e\"It was short, as you have just seen. It was very clear. Deputy Minister Titov has handed me quite a long piece of paper setting out the Russian legal view of the work of the British Council and describing possible ways forward. I haven't studied it in detail yet. What I said to him in reply was a re-statement of our clear view that the British Council is working entirely legally, that it will continue therefore to work. And that any Russian action against it would be a breach of international law.\" \u003cbr/\u003eMoscow\u003cbr/\u003e12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Anthony Brenton, British Ambassador to Russia:\u003cbr/\u003e\"There is an issue about Mr Lugovoi which we have to handle. But to turn that issue into an attack on an institution which is valuable to Russia and to the United Kingdom is frankly mystifying.\"\u003cbr/\u003eMoscow\u003cbr/\u003e13. Mid shot pan Brenton getting into his car \u003cbr/\u003eMoscow\u003cbr/\u003e14. Wide pan Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin entering news conference\u003cbr/\u003e15. Cutaway of media\u003cbr/\u003e16. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Mikhail Kamynin, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman: \u003cbr/\u003e\"If the British side continues to ignore the demands of the Russian side we leave ourselves the right of taking concrete steps with regard to the central British Council office in Moscow.\"\u003cbr/\u003e17. Mid of Kamynin leaving\u003cbr/\u003eSt.Petersburg \u003cbr/\u003e18. Wide of street\u003cbr/\u003e19.SOUNDBITE (Russian) Sergey Ermoshkin, Vox Pop:\u003cbr/\u003e\"Any reasonable person understands that British intelligence is legally working under cover of such organisations. It is absolutely clear to everybody.\" \u003cbr/\u003e20. Wide of street (++REPEATED SHOT++)\u003cbr/\u003eRussia responded angrily on Monday to Britain's defiance of its order to close two offices of a cultural organisation, calling it a deliberate provocation and vowing punitive measures including restrictions on entry visas for consular officials.\u003cbr/\u003eBritain refused to back down. Its ambassador said that the British Council offices would remain open and that any Russian action against the organisation would violate international law.\u003cbr/\u003eThe British Council offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg reopened after the holiday break, despite Moscow's warnings that defying orders to suspend their operations by January 1 would worsen bilateral relations.\u003cbr/\u003e\"As far as we are aware, the British Council is working legally in Russia,\" James Kennedy, director of the British Council in Russia, told reporters at its St. Petersburg office after it opened Monday morning.\u003cbr/\u003eTies between London and Moscow are at a post-Cold War low, badly frayed by the 2006 poisoning death in Britain of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko.\u003cbr/\u003eMoscow last month ordered the closure of the two regional offices of the British Council, a non profit organisation that acts as the cultural arm of the British Embassy, saying they were operating illegally. \u003cbr/\u003eBritish officials dispute that claim, and the offices reopened on schedule after a holiday break.\u003cbr/\u003eThe defiance prompted Russia to summon British Ambassador Anthony Brenton to the Foreign Ministry for a dressing-down from Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov.\u003cbr/\u003eThe ministry said that the ambassador was told that the Russian side saw such actions as am deliberate provocation aimed at inciting tension in Russian-British relations.\u003cbr/\u003eIt promised various administrative and legal measures, including moves to recover what it said are back taxes owed by British Council's St. Petersburg office.\u003cbr/\u003eIn addition, Russia said it will stop issuing visas for new employees assigned to posts related to the British Council at Britain's consulates in St. Petersburg and the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, and will not renew the accreditation of existing staffers.\u003cbr/\u003e\"If the British side continues to ignore the demands of the Russian side we leave ourselves the right of taking concrete steps with regard to the central British Council office in Moscow,\" said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin.\u003cbr/\u003eHowever Britain remained defiant.\u003cbr/\u003e\"What I said to him in reply was a re-statement of our clear view that the British Council is working entirely legally, that it will continue therefore to work. And that any Russian action against it would be a breach of international law,\" British Ambassador Anthony Brenton told reporters after his meeting with Titov.\u003cbr/\u003eRussia contends the British Council acts as a for-profit organisation and has said the offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg violate the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.\u003cbr/\u003eBritish authorities say the organisation's operations in Russia comply with that pact as well as Russian law and a  1994 agreement between Britain and Russia.\u003cbr/\u003eThe dispute has been politically charged amid broader tension over Litvinenko's radiation poisoning death in London in November 2006. \u003cbr/\u003eRussia has refused Britain's request to extradite the man it considers the main suspect; this summer Britain expelled four Russian diplomats to protest Moscow's stand, and Russia in turn kicked out four British diplomats.\u003cbr/\u003eForeign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that the British Council closure order was taken as a \"countermeasure\" to the diplomat expulsion.\u003cbr/\u003eBrenton said that Lavrov had made it very clear that the actions that the Russians were taking against the British Council stemmed from the disagreement that happened at the time that Britain tried to extradite Mr. Lugovoi. \u003cbr/\u003e\"There is an issue about Mr Lugovoi which we have to handle. But to turn that issue into an attack on an institution valuable to Russia and to the United Kingdom is frankly mystifying,\" Brenton said.\u003cbr/\u003eRussia has been angry at Britain for years over its refusal to extradite tycoon Boris Berezovsky and Chechen separatist envoy Akhmed Zakayev.\u003cbr/\u003ePresident Vladimir Putin and his government have voiced concerns about foreign organisations operating in Russia, accused them of meddling and seeking to undermine the government.\u003cbr/\u003eOn the streets of St. Petersburg on Monday, some said the controversy was justified. \u003cbr/\u003e\"Any reasonable person understands that British intelligence is legally working under cover of such organisations. It is absolutely clear to everybody,\" said Sergey Ermoshkin.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='action-container flex justify-between'\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='false' aria-label='Read more description' class='rp-full-description' type='button'\u003e\n\u003ci class='fai fa-solid fa-align-left'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cspan id='read_more'\u003eRead More\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/button\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-report'\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-labelledby='resource-details-heading' class='rp-info-section'\u003e\n\u003ch2 class='title' id='resource-details-heading'\u003eResource Details\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-resource-details clearfix'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='detail'\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eCurator Rating\u003c/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e\u003cspan class=\"star-rating\" aria-label=\"3.5 out of 5 stars\" role=\"img\"\u003e\u003ci class=\"fa-solid fa-star text-action\" 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