TODAY: British Council row escalates, visa sanctions imposed; United Russia officials dismissed over “financial machinations”; new Berezovsky lawsuit; US and Russia to run joint anti-terror exercise; difficulties faced by Russian journalists and activists. The row over Russia’s British Council offices has escalated further, sending the international press is in a frenzy. Russia has accused Britain of “deliberate provocation” after the latter defied orders to close two of its Russian offices. The Foreign Ministry is threatening to recover back taxes from the St Petersburg office, and says it will not renew the visas of current British Council regional staff or issue new ones. Council director James Kennedy, when asked to predict the next step, said, “All sorts of things might happen. But [Sergei] Lavrov has said that we should not expect tanks outside the British Council.” Kennedy said it was too early to say what impact the visa sanctions would have. Sir Anthony Brenton, Britain’s ambassador to Moscow, continues to call the order a “breach of international law“. One paper, focusing on the cultural advantages offered by the British Council’s operations in Russia, points out that Lavrov’s daughter attended the London School of Economics. Another says that the row “was entirely predictable.”