Date
Author
Сергей АНТОНОВ; Нижний Новгород
Source
Preserved copy
Translated material
Financial revenge
The British Council in Nizhny Novgorod will be persecuted even after its closure
On Saturday, the branch of the British Council will cease its work in Nizhny Novgorod. At the same time, the leadership of the Nizhny Novgorod region intends to seek to recover money for renting premises from the British Council even after the closure of the regional office.The cessation of work of regional branches of the British Council from January 1, 2008 was announced in mid-December by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mikhail Kamynin. He called the creation of council branches in Russia and their placement on the territory of diplomatic missions illegal, recalling numerous financial claims against the British organization. In addition, the Foreign Ministry representative accused the British side of delaying negotiations to clarify the status of the organization. At the same time, Mr. Kamynin actually confirmed the political background of such a decision. According to him, the British authorities took “unfriendly and discriminatory actions” against Russia. As is known, the scandal with the accusation of former security officer Andrei Lugovoy in the murder of another ex-FSB officer, Alexander Litvinenko, in London, and Russia’s refusal to extradite him led to a sharp deterioration in Russian-British relations.
Until recently, the regional branch of the British Council was located in the center of Nizhny Novgorod, on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, in the building of the Teacher's House, and occupied an area of about 170 square meters. m. The organization has been operating in Nizhny Novgorod since 1993. Immediately after the visit of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the city, the then governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Boris Nemtsov, ordered the necessary square meters to be allocated for the British Council. The British were exempt from paying rent, but in return they agreed to improve the premises, built several centuries ago, and maintain it at their own expense. All these years the agreement has not been revised. However, in June of this year, the regional government unexpectedly demanded that the British Council urgently conclude lease agreements and pay rent in the amount of 3 million rubles.
Representatives of the British Council in Nizhny Novgorod notified the authorities in writing that they were unable to pay the money required by the regional government. And they began to prepare for eviction. According to the head of the public relations department of the British Council, Natalya Minchenko, on October 12, a decision was made to transfer all council libraries to partner organizations. In Nizhny, such a partner will be the Nizhny Novgorod Linguistic University, where computers, audio, video materials and books from the British Council library will be transferred. From January, all employees of the Nizhny Novgorod council will be laid off, they will be paid compensation and provided with assistance in finding employment. However, the process of liquidating the public organization will not end there.
Deputy Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region Irina Zhivikhina said the other day that the regional government will demand money from envoys from Foggy Albion, regardless of the future location of the British Council.
“In case of non-payment, no matter where they are, we will sue, since we do not intend to tolerate this disgrace,” said Irina Zhivikhina. “Not in Nizhny Novgorod - but in the federal one, not in the federal one - so to the international one.” The Deputy Governor added that, if necessary, the government of the Nizhny Novgorod region is ready to appeal to federal and international authorities. “There is no politics in this: the British Council must compensate for budget losses, and this is not discussed,” Ms. Zhivikhina is sure.