Russian minister urges halt to harassment of ambassador

Russia’s foreign minister today urged a pro-Kremlin youth group to stop harassing Britain’s ambassador, following a formal protest lodged by the British Foreign Office.

Activists of the group Nashi (Ours) have followed Ambassador Anthony Brenton and his family around town, heckled his speeches and protested outside the embassy, saying it wanted him to apologise for taking part in a conference of Russian opposition groups last summer.

The British Foreign Office last month urged Russia to end the harassment and “ensure that the ambassador and his family are accorded the normal respect and dignity in line with international obligations".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met Nashi leader Vasily Yakemenko today and told him that the group’s actions “must be accomplished in accordance with the law, including Russia’s international obligations, in particular those related to the 1961 Vienna conventions on diplomatic relations”, the ministry said in a statement.

Nashi was created following a series of mass uprisings in former Soviet republics that brought opposition leaders to power. Government critics say it was established by the Kremlin to counter opposition groups.

Russian-British relations have been tense recently over spy scandals and Britain’s granting asylum to Kremlin critics.

They plunged to a new low after the poisoning death of a former Russian security agent, Alexander Litvinenko, a Kremlin critic who died in a London hospital on November 23 after ingesting the rare radioactive isotope polonium-210.

In a deathbed statement, he blamed Putin for his poisoning, charges the Kremlin has angrily denied.