TODAY: British Council offices are shut, and accusing of covering up spying operations. Kasyanov says his efforts to run for president are being thwarted. Mitvol’s resignation rejected. Kasparov condemns delay of investigation into activist’s death. Russia’s military chief of staff says Moscow will use pre-emptive nuclear force if necessary. Killer given government post. Two British Council officials in St Petersburg have left Russia after being detained by security services, “raising fears that the offices may never reopen.” Two UK journalists separately blame the Kremlin’s power for the current situation, and urge the West to support Russia’s liberals. The Foreign Ministry has hinted that the British Council’s regional offices might be allowed to reopen if Britain “resumed cooperation with the Federal Security Service and expressed a willingness to ease visa rules for Russians,” but a senior officer of Russia’s Federal Security Service said that “We have no doubt that British intelligence uses the council as well as other organizations to spy in Russia.”