SUPPLEMENTARY MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED BY
THE FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
THE FCO'S ROLE IN PROMOTING BRITISH INTERESTS
IN AND RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA
1. This memorandum sets our supplementary
information requested in the letter of 26 October from the Clerk
of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
PROFESSOR HOSKING'S
LETTER ABOUT
THE BRITAIN-RUSSIA
CENTRE/BRITISH
EAST-WEST
CENTRE
2. The Britain-Russia Centre (formerly the
Great Britain-USSR Association) was set up in 1959 during the
Cold War to counter Soviet-dominated front organisations and to
provide a non-political channel for cultural, professional and
human contacts of all kinds between the UK and the USSR. The dissolution
of the USSR also saw the dissolution of the Soviet front organisations.
There was a huge increase in cultural, business and other contacts,
not controlled by central governments. There was a question-mark
over the future of the Centre since it no longer had a monopoly
of acceptable links and projects. The FCO considered whether to
wind the BRC up, but, at that time, decided that it still had
a potentially valuable role to play.
3. Two Quinquennial Reviews by the FCO in
1993 and 1999 reached the same conclusion, but also recommended
the Centre do more to diversify its source of funding away from
almost exclusive reliance on FCO grant-in-aid (£230,850 in
the current financial year). The 1999 Review recommends that the
BRC concentrates on high-quality project management in areas directly
related to FCO corporate objectives. We value the practical work
of the BRC. Last year, it undertook five Russia-specific programmes,
consisting, typically of four-day study tours/visits. It also
hosted five meetings/seminars typically lasting two hours.
4. Geoffrey Hosking, Professor of Russian
History at the London School of Slavonic and East European Studies,
has written to the FAC to complain that the FCO is about to end
all funding for the membership, library and information services
of the Britain-Russia Centre. The 1999 Quinquennial Review concluded
that the FCO's grant-in-aid should not be used to subsidise membership
activities, which currently cost around £15,000 per annum.
The Centre's current corporate plan, which was agreed with the
FCO, sets itself the goal of making these activities self-financing.
With a membership of 1,100 and a subscription fee of £20
(£150 for its two corporate sponsors), this should not be
difficult to achieve. The FCO will continue to allow grant-in-aid
to be used for a lecture programme and limited, carefully targeted
information work.
5. The Quinquennial Review has also recommended
the library ceases to operate as a lending library. There is no
evidence that the library is heavily used for academic or research
purposes around 70 per cent of the borrowing is fiction, and almost
exclusively the borrowers are BRC members. It is not a priority
use of grant-in-aid resources. There is no objective for it in
the Centre's corporate plan. It could be argued that the books
would be much more accessible in an academic library, but this
is for the Centre to decide. If the membership can entirely finance
the costs of the library, including staff time, it may, of course,
choose to keep the library open.
6. Professor Hosking points out that the
memberships are a useful resource. We share that view, and hope
they will continue to be so. We do not see that the question of
membership subsidies will affect this. The current Director has
been invited on three occasions (most recently during the course
of the review) to supply a list of members actively involved in
programmes, but he has not yet done so.
7. Professor Hosking remarks that "as
far as he has been able to ascertain, the Quinquennial Review
was conducted at great speed and without much consultation".
The Executive Committee, of which he is a member, has been aware
of the need for the review to be carried out since last June,
but Professor Hosking became aware of that when he attended a
Committee meeting in October. The radical overhaul of the unwieldy
management structure of the Centre has been under discussion in
the Executive Committee since last February.
8. The Quinquennial Review was carried out
over the course of eight weeks (at an internal cost to the FCO
of £400 per working day). As well as the staff of the Centre,
the reviewer consulted 15 other individuals. Professor Hosking
was indeed approached by the reviewer for an interview as one
of the members of the Executive Committee. He was unable to make
time for the interview since he was preparing to go to Finland
for two weeks. The reviewer interviewed other members of the Executive
Committee instead so that the review could be completed in a timely
way.
THE LEVEL
OF FUNDING
PROVIDED BY
THE FCO FOR
RUSSIAN STUDIES
AND RUSSIAN/BRITISH
PROGRAMMES GENERALLY
IN THE
UK
9. Our major tool is the British Chevening
Scholarship Scheme which is funded by the FCO and enables talented
graduates and young professionals from overseas to study at postgraduate
level at universities and colleges in the UK. The British Council
runs a Russian Lectors Programme described below. The Britain-Russia
Centre includes in its activities a range of lectures on academic
and political themes. The scheme is self-financing since the lecturers'
fees are covered by entrance costs.
10. The FCO is also occasionally consulted
about Russian study programmes run by eg, the Higher Education
Funding Council and the Economic and Social Research Council (both
funded by DfEE).
CHEVENING SCHOLARSHIP
SCHEME
11. The scheme is targeted at those who
are likely to go on to play an influential role in their own countries.
funding for Russian scholars amounts to £226,443 for the
current financial year. This will be sufficient to bring 15 scholars
to this country. An additional 10 or so Russian scholars study
in the UK under additional Chevening Scholarships jointly funded
by the FCO, British universities and commercial and other co-sponsors.
12. At his meeting on 22 July with Russian
Foreign Minister Ivanov, the Foreign Secretary announced that
the Chevening allocation for Russia for 2000-1 would be increased
to £400,000. Russia is also one of the countries identified
as a target for the expansion of Chevening as part of the Prime
Minister's initiative to attract more international students to
study in the UK. There are therefore likely to be additional scholarships
available for Russian students from 2000-01, but it is not yet
possible to say how many, as this will depend on which countries
commercial co-sponsors wish to support.
13. British Chevening Scholars are selected
under the supervision of British Embassies and High Commissions
overseas on the basis of their intellectual abilities and personal
qualities. The scheme is targeted at young people who are likely
to go on to play an influential role in Russia.
THE RUSSIAN
LECTORS SCHEME
14. This scheme, which has been running
since 1989 is more or less self-financing, depending on the number
of lectors coming to the UK each year. The British Council assists
British universities seeking Russian lectors. Staff time dedicated
to this scheme is recovered by levying a management fee. British
universities currently participating in the scheme are:
— University of Birmingham
— University of Wales, Bangor
— University of St Andrews
— University of Sheffield (two lectors)
Russian universities involved are:
— St Petersburg State University
— Architecture and Civil Engineering
Academy, Samara
— Ulyanovsk State Technical University
— Voronezh State University
— Tambov State University
— Moscow State University
YOUTH EXCHANGES
15. The Youth Exchange Centre supports bilateral
youth exchange projects with Russia. The target group is the disadvantaged.
In the 1998-99 financial year, 34 exchange visits received £73,795
in grant support from the British Council grant-in-aid funds.
The funding covers travel and reception costs incurred in the
UK.
RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
(RLUS)
16. RLUS is a non-profit making company
with charitable status which has been organising Russian language
based courses for British university/college students in Russia
for over 10 years. The courses are aimed at undergraduates who
have completed two years of Russian language study already.
17. RLUS' general policy and strategy are
directed by a voluntary Chairman and Executive Committee drawn
from Russian departments of British Universities. Any British
University can participate in the scheme. This semester RLUS has
a total of 140 students from 18 universities, most of them spending
a year in Russia. The scheme not only develops language skills,
but also creates a cadre of young Britons with a real interest
in Russian culture. Several former RLUS participants have returned
to work for British companies in Russia. There is no direct cash
contribution from the FCO for this programme, but the British
Council covers half the cost of a full-time student liaison officer
based in Moscow.
LANGUAGE ASSISTANTS
SCHEME
18. DfEE's Central Bureau runs a language
assistants programme, under which five Russian language students
from Britain are placed in colleges, universities or schools in
Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Sochi and Tula for nine months. The
British Council pays approximately £10,000 per annum to cover
the cost of airfares and a contribution towards living expenses.
The Central Bureau is responsible for selection which is done
through competition on the basis of merit.
DFID-ASSISTED PROJECTS
IN RUSSIA
OVER THE
LAST THREE
YEARS
19. The Department for International Development
(DFID) is responsible for UK assistance to Russia and the countries
of the former Soviet Union. It channels this assistance through
the Know How Fund. The White Paper on international development,
"Eliminating World Poverty", states that "we will
continue to support the process of transition in the region, seeking
to ensure that its benefits are sustainable and spread through
all levels of society".
20. DFID's bilateral assistance to Russia
has been about £30 million per year over the past three years.
Below is a description of the priority sectors for bilateral assistance,
illustrated with examples of specific projects.
GOOD GOVERNMENT/MEDIA
21. The purpose is to promote open, accountable
and participatory forms of government, a healthy and active civil
society and an entrenched respect for the rule of law. There are
five priority objectives:
— To strengthen democratic institutions;
— To promote legal reform and human
rights;
— To strengthen public administration
in selected oblasts;
— To promote and strengthen Russian
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
— To encourage free, independent and
responsible media.
22. Projects in this sector are varied.
DFID are supporting the independent media through the BBC Media
Skills Training Centre in Ekaterinburg, which trains radio and
TV journalists in balanced coverage of events. They also support
a project with the Moscow Media Law and Policy Centre designed
to bring changes to the federal law on media ownership. DFID are
strengthening the capacity of the Russian judicial system to ensure
that the courts system runs effectively, efficiently and fairly.
This focuses on selection and training of judges, courts administration
and financing; and implementation of judicial decisions. A project
supporting a Russian edition of "The Big Issue" in St
Petersburg has been extended to other cities and provides homeless
people with a source of income. A small grants scheme for NGOs
is supporting over 20 projects in areas as diverse as consumers'
groups and riding for the disabled.
ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT
23. In enterprise development, the aim is
to support job creation through small and medium-sized enterprise
development and by assisting mono-company towns. Since 1996 DFID
have supported an Investment Support Centre, which assists preparation
of good quality investment proposals by Russian enterprises and
has generated $50 million in investment.
24. In the Russian coal industry, DFID have
set up two advice centres in Kemerovo and Rostov which are achieving
high levels of re-employment for redundant mine workers. DFID
are also supporting a small and medium enterprise development
project in Kemerovo, which has to date created over 650 new jobs
and is assisting the authorities in creating strategies for sustainable
enterprise development.
HEALTH
25. The aim is to promote better health,
in particular for poor people, via improved health service delivery
and by helping to tackle the problems of sexually transmitted
diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis (TB). DFID
is currently assisting with child mental health in Sverdlovsk
oblast, aiming to create sustainable, community-based child mental
health services and to generate support for this at federal level.
To date, the project has proved very successful in reducing the
number of children with mental health problems receiving institutional
care.
26. The KHF has provided advice to the TB
service in Tomsk oblast, comparing WHO-recommended outpatient
treatment methods with traditional Russian in-patient methods,
and have succeeded in getting Federal Ministry of Health agreement
to use Tomsk as a pilot site for TB reform. DFID hope to expand
their work to two further oblasts, in Siberia and the Volga region.
27. Work on HIV/AIDS and STDs has been centred
in Sverdlovsk and Samara. In Sverdlovsk, DFID is working with
Russian partners to design and implement a programme for injecting
drug users to reduce transmission of HIV. In Samara DFID is working
to improve access to higher quality STD services in the oblast
and to inform national policy on STD control.
PUBLIC FINANCE
28. Dealing with the problems of public
finance in Russia is key to economic growth and to improved social
services provision. DFID therefore intends to identify projects
on taxation and expenditure management at the federal and oblast
level, as well as in municipalities. Since 1998 DFID has assisted
the International Centre for Accounting Reform to introduce open
and transparent accounting methods in Russia, in line with the
needs of a market economy. This work will include assistance to
establish a Russian professional accountants' association, and
making revised accounting methods accessible in a practical form
to enterprise accountants. DFID has also worked on municipal finance
with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the World Bank. We provide
assistance to the MoF to reform budget and financial management
insub-federal entities (oblasts and cities), including drawing
up a code of practice and a programme to help regions implement
this.
SOCIAL PROTECTION
29. Social protection is a new sector for
the Russia programme. DFID expects to help with state pension
reform and delivery of social services. A pilot project in this
sector assists with policy advice to the Russian state pension
fund (SPF) on state pensions for privileged occupations, and will
improve understanding of the issues among parliamentarians, policy
makers in the Ministry of Labour and Social Development and interest
groups involved in re-balancing pension support. DFID hopes to
build on this by identifying further work in the state pensions
sector. Separately, DFID has supported a project to increase Duma
members' understanding of social policy issues and the difficulty
of balancing social services delivery with financial constraints.
This work will focus on improved social services for children
and families, the elderly and the disabled, and will include assistance
with drafting appropriate and realistic federal legislation.
RURAL LIVELIHOODS
30. The rural communities of Russia have
been badly hit during transition. The work includes developing
mechanisms to help mobilise and re-allocate those resources available
to the rural citizen, such as land, labour skills and limited
physical and financial capital. DFID is also supporting the establishment
of Third Party Arbitration Courts as a method to resolve land
dispute in an efficient, affordable and expert manner.
ENVIRONMENT
31. The priorities are air pollution, water
pollution, solid and waste management, cleaner production and
sustainable forest management. Examples of DFID projects include
assistance to Vodokanal, theSt Petersburg water utility, with
the eventual aim of meeting European standards for drinking water
and wastewater discharges by 2015, and development of a new policy
framework. We are also developing a new policy framework for National
Parks, which is delivering tangible benefits to local communities
living within them and safeguarding their environmental value.
GLOBAL DIMENSIONS
(5 PER CENT)
32. This is another new priority area for
DFID, which is seeking to support Russian accession to the World
Trade Organisation (WTO). DFID have supported seminars on trade
disputes and anti-dumping, bringing together both business and
government, in order to inform debate on these issues.
REGIONAL SCHEMES
33. The Russia Programme also benefits from
a number of DFID schemes which operate throughout the region.
The John Smith Fellowships Programme brings influential young
people from political life to the UK on training and work attachments.
The focus of the scheme has recently been expanded to include
leading administrators and civil society leaders. The Regional
Academic Partnerships Scheme (REAP) helps UK and Russian institutions
to develop new education and training courses. The Technical Links
Scheme supports joint partnerships between local authorities.
Charity Know How (CKH) supports skills-sharing partnerships between
British charities and NGOs in transition countries.
HOW HMG ASSISTS
PARLIAMENTARY CONTACTS
BETWEEN RUSSIA
AND THE
UK
34. HMG assists bilateral parliamentary
contacts in a number of ways mainly through the FCO visits programme,
DFID's bilateral assistance programme, and the British Council.
A list of parliamentary contacts over the last two years is attached
at Annex A. The visit sponsors are indicated after each entry.
35. Strengthening UK-Russian Parliamentary
links has long been one of the FCO's priorities, and particularly
so since the crisis of August 1998. The crisis underlined the
importance of securing wider public and political support for
reform, and, crucially, support from the Duma (Parliament). The
impending Duma elections on 19 December 1999 have given a spur
to our recent efforts.
36. We have already achieved a great deal,
as the attached list of parliamentary visits shows. Madam Speakers's
involvement has been crucial. Following her successful visit to
Russia last October, we have worked closely with her office to
step up parliamentary contacts.
37. Links between British and Russian parliamentarians
provided an important channel of communication over Kosovo. The
Duma took an aggressively anti-NATO stance. Last May, visits by
the Duma International Affairs Committee to London, and by an
FCO-funded cross-party MPs' delegation to Moscow demonstrated
to the Russians the depth of repugnance in the UK for ethnic cleansing
in Kosovo and widespread support for NATO action to deal with
it. Both visits also did much to remind the Russians of our wish
for a constructive dialogue. Visits are now on hold with the Duma
elections pending.
38. We are determined to develop parliamentary
contacts further. We have outstanding invitations to the Speakers
of both Houses. We hope visits next year will trigger further
contacts by Committees and individual parliamentarians. We aim
to bring over at least three Duma Committees next year, including
the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Defence Committee.
39 The parliamentary visits list at Annex
A shows a healthy number of inward visits, but more outward visits
would be welcome. HMG has a number of resources at its disposal
to fund inward visits: the FCO allocates funds for this purpose.
DFID funds parliamentary visits where these are linked to specific
projects. The difficulty is in funding outward visits by British
MPs. Parliament has no funds allocated for enhancing parliamentary
links between the UK and Eastern Europe (as it does for, eg, the
Commonwealth). The FCO cannot fund this sort of activity on a
regular basis, but only to meet specific, one-off objectives.
DFID can only support outward visits tied to projects. The WFD
has to rely on cross-party groups of MPs coming forward with project
proposals.
40. A priority for DFID is support for the
development of a functioning democratic system and civil society
in Russia, and the participation of the electorate in politics.
It runs a number of programmes aimed at achieving this, principally
the British Parliamentary Cooperation Project (PACOP) and the
Democratic Institutions Small Projects Scheme (DISPS). DFID have
also part-funded a parliamentary exchange programme under the
Know How Fund which has resulted in a visit in each direction
this year by a small group of parliamentarians.
THE BRITISH
PARLIAMENTARY COOPERATION
PROJECT (PACOP)
41. PACOP has been in operation since 1997
and is designed to help strengthen the key legislative support
functions in the two chambers of the Russian Federal Assembly.
It is funded by DFID and managed by the British Council. It covers
areas such as legislative drafting, library and research services
and aims to complement and build on Canadian and EU initiatives
based on the improvement of parliamentary procedures by offering
different perspectives and comparative insights. Activities include:
seminars for staff members of the Russian lower and upper houses;
attachments to the House of Commons/House of Lords; study visits
to the UK by Russian parliamentarians and visits by House of Commons/House
of Lords staff to the Russian parliaments.
THE DEMOCRATIC
INSTITUTIONS SMALL
PROJECTS SCHEME
(DISPS)
42. DISPS was launched this year and aims
to support the development of democratic, political and civil
society institutions in the Russian Federation, mainly through
joint activity with British partners. The scheme funds individual
projects with a ceiling of £50,000. It accepts applications
from: NGOs and organised interest groups; political parties; policy
research institutions; civic education organisations, and civil
and political rights organisation. Project activities supported
by the scheme can include: study visits; training courses and
work attachements to Britain; workshops, consultancy advice leading
to the strengthening of institutions and capacity building, and
twinning links between similar bodies in Russia and the UK.
PARLIAMENTARY SEMINARS
43. DFID have arranged two seminars this
year in cooperation with the Federal Assembly: the first was on
parliamentary ethics and the second was on the media in the run-up
to the elections. Both seminars were attended by a high-level
Russian delegation.
PARLIAMENTARY LINKS
IN EDUCATION
44. The British Council supports an informal
and collaborative partnership for sharing best practice and experience
between the Committee for Education and Science of the State Duma
and the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Employment.
THE THREAT
POSED BY
RUSSIAN DRUGS
TO THE
UK
45. Russia has been identified as posing
a potential drugs threat to the UK, although there is, as yet,
no hard evidence to suggest that Russia poses an actual
drugs threat to the UK. The UK regularly reviews the threat assessment
levels assigned to major drug producer and transit countries as
part of its overseas anti-drugs strategy. The review is coordinated
by the FCO and includes interested Whitehall Departments and Agencies,
including input from HM Customs & Excise, the National Criminal
Intelligence Service, Intelligence Services. Additional input
is provided by Europol (the European centre for law enforcement
contact) and Interpol. Our Embassy in Moscow provides regular
briefings, as does the HM Customs & Excise Fiscal, Crime and
Drugs Liaison Office based in Moscow. The threat from the FSU
is also a feature in regular drugs contacts with the UN and our
European partners.
THE WORK
OF THE
MOSCOW FCDLO
46. The Liaison Officer in Moscow covers
financial, crime and drugs issues. His main role is to gather
operational intelligence and to liaise with the local law enforcement
agencies.
THE SUCCESS
OF TWINNING
ARRANGEMENTS BETWEEN
RUSSIAN AND
BRITISH TOWNS
47. The Local Government International Bureau
(LGIB) deal with town twinning. They make small grants to facilitate
traditional town twinning links which concentrate on the cultural
and social links. There are 30 such links between Russia and the
UK. However the LGIB concentrates its efforts on more practical
twinning links. To this end, they now operate a successful Technical
Links Scheme which initiates town twinning as well as projects
that offer UK technical support to Russian bodies. The scheme
was set up in 1991 and is funded through the DFID's Know How Fund.
Its objective is to support the transition process toward a market
economy and pluralist democracy in the countries of Central and
Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The scheme funds the exchange
of technical expertise between local authorities in the UK and
their partner communities in the countries concerned.
48. Since 1997, 27 projects in Russia, worth
£600,000, have been approved under the Technical Links Scheme.
Most of the projects have been successful, and in the cases of
Watford and Novgorod, Manchester and St Petersburg and Durham
and Kostroma are very active. The range of the projects vary a
great deal and encompass such areas as social care, small and
medium-sized business development, tourism and infrastructure
development, and economic development skills.
49. The UK and Russia have a good number
of twinning links and a range of varying projects. The level and
longevity of activity varies from programme to programme. This
is because, after an initial grant from the LGIB, funding has
to come from the local authorities themselves. While our embassies,
and other bodies may promote town twinning, the decision and actions
lie with the local authorities in Russia and the UK.
THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF THE
EBRD'S NUCLEAR
SAFETY ACCOUNT
AND OTHER
MULTILATERAL EFFORTS
TO IMPROVE
THE SAFETY
OF RUSSIA'S
NUCLEAR REACTORS
50. At the Munich Summit of 1992, G7 leaders
called on the Central and Eastern European countries and the CIS
to eliminate the dangers associated with their nuclear reactors
and offered them support within a framework of a multilateral
programme of actions. As a result the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development set up a Nuclear Safety Account (NSA) to which
the UK has contributed £18.25 million. The NSA is by far
the largest multilateral programme.
51. The NSA programme comprises immediate
measures to help bring urgently needed operational, technical
and regulatory improvements. Under the NSA Grant Agreements with
Russia, three of the plants with the oldest Soviet-designed reactors
are undergoing short-term safety upgrade programmes. The programmes
at the Kola and Novovoronezh nuclear power plants are expected
to be totally completed by the end of November 1999. At the Leningrad
plant, seven out of the 16 safety upgrade project items have been
totally completed and most of the remaining work is expected to
be completed by the end of 1999.
52. Carrying out In-Depth Safety Assessments
(IDSAs) at 10 designated reactors in Russia forms a significant
part of the Grant Agreement. These plant-specific assessments
are important as a key requisite of the transition towards sound
licensing processes in Russia but progress has been painfully
slow and the attitude of the Russians towards the IDSAs has not
been encouraging. The completion of these assessments will be
the key focus of work and funds for the next two or three years
under the Grant Agreement with Russia.
53. While valuable safety improvements have
been made under the NSA, the Grant Agreements between the EBRD
and Russia include commitments by Russia to make plans for the
closure of their older design reactors. A matter of considerable
concern at present is the fact that the Russians wish to extend
the life of some of their Chernobyl-type reactors (RBMKs) beyond
their original design lifetimes. The Russians insist that this
will be necessary at certain plants due to the lack of alternative
energy sources. This would not merely be incompatible with the
NSA Agreement, but would also contravene Current Russian legislation,
which limits the operation of reactors to the end of the original
design life. Developments in this field will be closely monitored.
54. Multilateral financial support for nuclear
safety assistance is also being channelled through the EU's Phare
and TACIS programmes. Over 500 mecu (approx £390 million)
has been committed under these programmes with the UK contributing
around 13 per cent of the total amount. While TACIS continues
to fund important reactor safety work in Russia, there have been
administrative delays in the handling of many projects. This is
something the UK has pressed the Commission to improve.
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