'British Council undesireable', Russia warns those flirting with UK

Russia has declared the British Council an "undesirable" organisation, accusing it of acting as a cover for the UK intelligence service MI-6. In a statement issued on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova alleged that the UK intelligence services use the British Council in operations aimed at undermining the sovereignty of countries. "Russia’s competent authorities have received information that British intelligence services use the British Council in clandestine operations aimed at eroding the sovereignty of independent countries and it engages in secret subversive activities,” Zakharova said.Zakharova said that Moscow has warned “friendly” countries against forging closer ties and “flirting” with the UK.
The British Council used Ukrainian refugees to obtain information about the situation in Donbass and Novorossiya, as well as the location of Russian troops in these regions, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) reported. The British Council organized work to obtain intelligence information about the development of the situation in the new regions and the deployment of Russian troops," the FSB said in a statement. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office designated the British Council an undesirable organisation, although it has been defunct since 2018. The organization “vigorously helped with the general Western effort to discredit the policy of our country’s leadership and diminish Russian influence in various regions of the world, especially in the CIS,” the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson said, according to news agency TASS.