British work countering Russian propaganda on the Baltic frontline is facing the axe as a result of cuts to the aid budget.
The British Council, which is one of the UK’s leading cultural and educational organisations overseas, is under severe financial strain and is expected to close dozens of offices internationally due to government cuts to its funding.
Kate Ewart-Biggs, the council’s Deputy Chief Executive, has said that it will be “extremely difficult” to keep its offices open in Lithuania and Estonia following the Government’s cuts to its aid budget despite the growing influence of Russia in the region.
The i Paper understands the council may also be forced to shut down its operations in Latvia, meaning the UK will have almost no soft power influence on the Baltic frontline to counteract Russia’s propaganda.
The British Council is being forced to cut costs as it struggles to repay a Covid-era loan worth £197m, and as the bulk of its funding via the Integrated Security Fund, which is to counter threats to the UK, is due to be cut by 43.5 per cent over the two years to 2026/27.
Staying open in the Baltic states ‘extremely difficult’
MPs have criticised the decision to cut funding for the organisation at a time when Russia as well as China are expanding their own influence across vast swathes of the globe.
During a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week, Tory former Cabinet minister Sir John Whittingdale asked if the Foreign Office had agreed to the closure of the British Council’s Baltic offices, warning that it is an “area where there is a very strong need for the projection of British values, because of the amount of Russian disinformation taking place”.
In response, Ewart-Biggs said the council is in “active discussion with the FCDO” and is asking for a £20m uplift in funding to keep the work ongoing in those countries, which she described as “most important to the UK”.
But she later added that the council “cannot afford to be in the number of countries that we are in with the current grant and without the resolution of the loan”.
“In the Baltic states, the majority of the activity was funded by the ISF project, so when that comes to an end, staying open in those countries will be extremely difficult,” she said.
Cuts will do ‘real damage’
Wittingdale later told The i Paper that the cuts facing the British Council will do “real damage to the UK’s international reach and diminish its soft power”.
He added that its work in the Baltic states was crucial to countering “Russian disinformation that is aimed at a lot of Russian-speaking people” in these countries.
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The warnings came after the British Council Chief Executive Scott McDonald said the organisation was “still in real financial peril” despite 16 months of discussions with the Foreign Office to resolve the issue of its covid loan.
“We are now selling everything the British Council has that we are able to sell,” McDonald said. “We don’t have anything else. If it [soft power] is worth it, the UK needs to fund it. If it’s not worth it, then we can get to work shrinking further.”
The Foreign Office was contacted for comment.
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