Russia has dismissed Tony Blair as an "ex-Prime Minister who is emotional and tired" as it hit back at his warning that British companies would not invest in the country unless it accepted Western values like the one he displayed in Iraq.

Relations between London and Moscow are in their frostiest state for years ahead of a meeting between Mr Blair and Vladimir Putin today at the close of the G8 summit in Germany.

Sergei Storchak, Russia's deputy Finance Minister, yesterday dismissed Mr Blair's warning on investment as "emotional".

Speaking in Heiligendamm, he said: "I doubt that business will react emotionally to what I believe are the emotional and tired words of a person who is... the ex-Prime Minister." He said Mr Blair's "rather unexpected" statement went against the grain of the work by officials from the G8 nations in the past six months.