A decision by the Government to protest against the invasion of Georgia by stopping Army pipers from travelling to Russia has been condemned by the former head of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

Brigadier Mel Jameson said he was deeply disappointed that the 40 musicians will not be able to take part in the four-day Moscow military tattoo, called the Kremlin Zoria, as a result of worsening diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Musicians from the Royal Gurkha Rifles and the Irish Guards had been due to travel to the Russian capital next Monday.

However, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office cancelled the trip and yesterday confirmed that its decision was in protest at the continued Russian military presence in Georgia.

A group of 20 pipers from Canada have also withdrawn from the event, scheduled to start next Thursday. The Kremlin Zoria was founded last year with the help of officials from the Edinburgh Tattoo and its inaugural four-day event featured more than 170 British performers.

Brigadier Jameson, who acts as an adviser to the organisers of the Zoria, said yesterday: “These kinds of links are so very important at times of international tension.

“Over the years we have established links of great friendship with the Russian organisers, and we have benefited from their support and expertise in Edinburgh. This just shows that music apparently does not cross all boundaries.”

The strength of the ties between the Edinburgh and Moscow tattoos was illustrated in August last year when the Russians sent a band to take the place of an American military band that pulled out of the Edinburgh Tattoo at the last minute. A month later the massed pipes and drums of the Scottish regiments played alongside the Kremlin Guard and a German military band in Red Square. “It was a moving experience for everyone who saw it,” Brigadier Jameson said.

The decision by the Foreign Office was condemned by the Russian organisers of the Zoria, an independent charity with no links to the Kremlin or the Russian military.

Vitaly Mironov, the director of the Kremlin Zoria Foundation, said that his heart was broken. He added: “We have worked so hard. This is not a good decision, it is a political decision.

“Ordinary Russians, people who respect Britain, were looking forward to this. Our festival is not a political festival - it has nothing to do with this bloody war.”

David Miliband, in a speech last week to students in Kiev, warned President Medvedev of Russia not to embark on a new Cold War. However, the Foreign Secretary was accused by Mr Mironov of “playing politics” and engaging in a propaganda campaign.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “In light of Russian military action in Georgia, we no longer feel is appropriate for a British Army military band to attend the Kremlin Zoria. As the Foreign Secretary has made clear, it is not ‘business as usual' with Russia.”

Mr Mironov, an historian, has played a leading role in fostering good relations between Russia and Scotland, and helped to found the Caledonian Club in Moscow in 1994.

“I want to ask Mr Miliband, ‘What now?' What does he want to show millions of ordinary Russians? That ordinary British people don't like them? I simply don't believe it,” he said.

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