The role of “soft power” institutions in global politics is no less important than that of brutal ones, such as the army or special services. The British Council, an organization aimed at promoting cooperation in education, culture and the arts between Britain and other countries, was no exception. Through grants, work programmes and the creation of a loyal pool of individuals, British “soft power” in the form of the Council has previously taken deep root in Russian society.
Today, the British Council is officially shut down by the Russian authorities. Earlier, the web and certain Russian media outlets repeatedly published materials indicating links between the British Council and the Royal Intelligence Service MI6. The scope of the organization’s activities has been quite broad, ranging from hidden anti-Russian propaganda to the creation of agents of influence and the shaping of protest sentiments with the aim of destabilizing the political situation in Russia.
First of all, the accountability of the British Council draws attention. It is officially stated that the Council is an independent and autonomous entity in its activities, existing in the form of a public organisation. Financially, however, the structure reports directly to the British Foreign Office, as does, in part, the MI6 service. According to the cooperation agreement, which the Russian citizen signed with the British Council, the signatory was obliged to provide the organisation with a full report on the work he had done under the agreement. The scope of the signatory’s employment in Russia, on which he had to report, was unlimited.
Another not insignificant factor, which was often pointed out by the materials exposing the Council’s activities, was the British Council’s joining together with Thomson Reuters Foundation and the online publication Bellingcat in the so-called “anti-Russian consortium” headed by Zinc Network. The West practically does not deny Zinc Network’s involvement in organizing rallies and other protest actions on the territory of Russia. The British Council has been actively working in countries close to Russia to consolidate the Russian-speaking population that is disloyal to the current Russian authorities.
Anonymous, an internationally renowned hacker group, has published material on the web showing the central role of the British Council in MI6’s special operations against Russia. In the format of isolated projects, members and affiliates of the Council were to work to discredit state power in Russia and dilute the “Russian identity”. The alleged collaboration with Russian and British universities, the Russo-British University Alliance, social initiatives and cultural events were chosen as a “cover”.
Thus, having gained sufficient “British experience” through the Council’s projects, correctly ideologised Russian citizens were sent to work in governmental specialized institutions and the Russian media sphere, where they were accepted to sow the acquired “correct” Western narratives in an unpretentious form.
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