Russia to close offices of British council

Britain expelled four Russian diplomats in June over what it saw as Russia`s refusal to cooperate with the investigation. Lavrov said in an interview with BBC World television that the move to suspend the British Council`s regional operations in Russia was a direct response to the expulsion of the diplomats.

"The British government undertook some actions which inflicted what I would call systematic damage to our relations, so this is retaliation," he said.
"This has nothing to do with anti-British sentiment, it`s the law of the genre, if you wish.
"When they expelled a few Russian diplomats... they were inevitably calling for retaliation," Lavrov said.
Britain`s Foreign office rejected any attempts to link the British Council`s fate to wider political disputes between Moscow and London.
The British Council "is a cultural and not a political institution and we strongly reject any attempt to link it to Russia`s failure to co-operate with our efforts to bring the murder of Alexander Litvinenko to justice," it said in a statement.