FORMER Labour leader and Islwyn MP Neil Kinnock today blasted Russia's "bullying'' tactics tonight after his son was targeted in the row over the British Council.

Lord Kinnock, who is chairman of the cultural organisation, lambasted the Kremlin for harassing its staff for "crude political purposes''.

Stephen Kinnock - the Council's director in St Petersburg - was stopped by police on Tuesday night and accused of drink driving, before being released an hour later.

Local employees were also summoned by the Russian secret service (FSB) and grilled in detail over their work and personal lives.

The incidents marked a new low in Anglo-Russian relations, amid the continuing fallout from the murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband today stepped up his criticism of the Russian authorities, describing their behaviour as "a stain'' on the country's reputation.

The Kremlin has ordered the closure of all Council branches outside Moscow on the grounds that they were operating illegally.

The instruction was initially refused, but chief executive Martin Davidson formally suspended its activities in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg this morning to ensure the "wellbeing of our staff'' following a "campaign of imitation''.

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Miliband denounced the Russian actions as "reprehensible'' and "not worthy of a great country''.

After watching the Foreign Secretary from the Commons gallery, Lord Kinnock expressed his own anger in the Upper House, branding the incidents "indefensible'' and "Orwellian''.

"While we are told that today's Russia prides itself on its strength and sophistication, the systematic bullying of talented, decent, loyal Russian citizens who are employed by the British Council manifests the complete opposite of those qualities," he said.

The peer insisted that the Council was "legal and law-abiding'', and its facilities were used by more than a million Russians every year.

The Russian authorities had made their true motivations clear last month when their Foreign Ministry described the crackdown as a "deliberate retaliation against the UK for our country's efforts to secure justice for a Russian murder in London'', Lord Kinnock said.

"In the light of that, it is plain that the view of the international community that attacks on a widely respected cultural and educational organisation, for crude political purposes, is absolutely indefensible,'' he added.