Steve LeVine covers foreign affairs for BusinessWeek. He previously was correspondent for Central Asia and the Caucasus for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for 11 years. His first book, The Oil and the Glory, a history of the former Soviet Union through the lens of oil, was published in October 2007. Putin’s Labyrinth, his new book, profiles Russia through the lives and deaths of six Russians. It was released this week.

Videos and Podcasts from The Oil and the Glory

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner



A Blog on Russia, Central Asia and
the Caucasus

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Brits Close Satellite Cultural Offices in Russia

Update to yesterday's post on the U.K.-Russian dispute over the Litvinenko assassination: Great Britain has closed the two British Council offices ordered shut by the Russians outside Moscow. The British say that relations have reverted to Cold War-era temperatures and tactics. What's surprising is that the British seem genuinely astonished to be treated the way many outliers -- local political critics, uncooperative foreign companies, Russian reporters -- have for the last seven years.

Photo: SimonDavo
Rights: Creative Commons

Labels: , , ,

posted by Steve at 4:25 PM

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

BBC has an overview of the Russian media's reaction. The summary: the British attitude is rude, the Russian government's - dumb.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
2/hi/europe/7194066.stm

January 17, 2008 5:57 PM  
Blogger Steve said...

Interesting comments. I would not have expected some of them. Thanks for the link.

January 17, 2008 6:02 PM  

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home