Russia Detains British Council Director

The row between Russia and Britain over the fate of the British Council escalated today when the council confirmed that one of its senior British staff members had been arrested.

The council this morning said it was "deeply concerned" for the safety of its British and Russian staff in Russia after the detention last night of the director of its St Petersburg office, Stephen Kinnock, and the interrogation of other employees.

Britain angrily lodged an immediate diplomatic protest today, summoning Russia's ambassador to London, Yury Fedotov, for an urgent meeting at the Foreign Office.

Russian police detained Kinnock at 11.30pm last night when he was driving in the city. They claimed he had a "heavy smell of alcohol on his breath", and had violated traffic rules. Officials held him for an hour and then released him.

This morning, the British Council denied that Kinnock had been drunk, saying he appeared to be the victim of a sinister pattern of state-backed intimidation and deliberate harassment against council staff.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) - the successor agency to the KGB - yesterday summoned all members of staff working for the British Council's two remaining regional offices, in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, the council said.

The employees were told to report to the FSB's headquarters. Late last night, officers from Russia's ministry of interior visited the private homes and flats of all the British Council's regional Russian employees, the council revealed.

The council in St Petersburg also announced this morning that it had temporarily suspended work amid the unprecedented campaign against its British and Russian employees.

In a statement this morning, the council said: "Our main concern is for the safety and security of both our Russian and UK staff. We are deeply concerned by these incidents."

It added: 'We can confirm that last night Stephen Kinnock, Director St Petersburg, was followed, stopped and subsequently released an hour later by Russian authorities.

'We can also confirm that our Russian national staff, in both St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, were yesterday summoned for interview by the FSB at their headquarters and subsequently visited in their homes late last night by officials of the Russian ministry of interior."

The arrest of Stephen Kinnock - the son of the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock - on apparently trumped-up charges is likely to infuriate the British government and lead to a further escalation in the deepening row between London and Moscow.

The Kremlin ordered the British Council to shut its two regional offices last month, saying the move was a response to Britain's decision last July to expel four Russian diplomats in connection with the murder in London of the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.

Britain refused to obey. On Monday, the British Council reopened its St Petersburg office after the Christmas and New Year break. The council insisted its work in Russia was legal and governed by a 1994 bilateral agreement.

Russia hit back by saying it would now refuse to give or renew visas for the British Council's regional staff. Yesterday, pro-Kremlin politicians and former KGB generals also denounced Britain's move, calling for further punitive action.

Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov - whose own daughter was educated at the London School of Economics - also waded into the row, accusing Britain of "colonial" thinking and "nostalgia for empire".