The Prosecutor General’s Office has declared the British Council, an international organization of the United Kingdom for cultural relations and educational opportunities, “undesirable” in Russia. “Posing itself as an independent structure, the council builds all its work in accordance with the priorities of the UK government; the organization is accountable to parliament and is funded by the foreign policy department of this country,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement on its website.
The supervisory body believes that the British Council, “under the guise of educational and cultural activities” — educational events and English language training — promotes “long-term British interests and values in the field of education, culture and youth policy,” including promoting LGBT. The Prosecutor General’s Office named the organization’s goal as “rid the population of the former Soviet republics of their Russian identity” and the creation of a “global network of agents of British influence.” “At the expense of English aristocrats, they are implementing projects aimed at discrediting our domestic and foreign policies,” the Prosecutor General’s Office emphasized.
The British Council is a public organization accountable to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It was founded in 1934. The Council participates in organizing IELTS English language tests, finances international educational programs, and develops cultural ties between the UK and other countries, the BBC Russian Service recalls. The organization is represented in more than 200 countries and territories.
The Council ceased operations in Russia in 2018, when the Russian Foreign Ministry ordered it to do so as one of the retaliatory measures for the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the UK in the Skripal poisoning case. Last year, the FSB said the organization was involved in recruiting Ukrainian refugees living in the UK “to obtain military-political intelligence through existing close connections in the Kherson region.” In August 2024, the State Duma Commission for the Investigation of Foreign Interference in Russia’s Internal Affairs proposed that the Prosecutor General’s Office ban the British Council from any activity in Russia. This happened after the law came into force, allowing not only non-governmental but also state organizations to be recognized as “undesirable.”