Brown and Medvedev aim to heal wounds
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Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister, is set to hold his first one-to-one meeting with Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian president-elect, later this year in a sign that both London and Moscow are working to put their bilateral relationship on a new and improved footing.
For the last two years, Britain and the Russia have experienced their worst bilateral relations in many years, following the murder of the former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London and the closure of British Council offices in two Russian cities earlier this year.
However, British officials say London and Moscow are working on plans for Mr Brown and Mr Medvedev to hold a bilateral meeting at the Group of Eight summit in Japan this July, a move that would signal both want better relations between London and Moscow.
British officials say Downing Street has received a positive response from the Kremlin to a request that the two British Council offices in St Petersburg and Ekaterinburg should soon be reopened.
The UK has consular offices in both cities and, in what would be a face-saving compromise, Russia is considering allowing the British Council to restart its operations inside these.
UK officials privately accept there is now no chance Russia will agree to one of its key requests in the diplomatic dispute - that Andrei Lugovoi, the man wanted by British authorities in connection with the murder of Litvinenko - will be extradited.
David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, said Mr Medvedev had received a clear mandate in recent presidential elections, despite western concerns that the polls were not free and fair.
Britain, meanwhile, is not wholeheartedly backing US calls for Georgia and Ukraine to be allowed to move forward in their desire to join Nato.
Britain’s position is that Georgia and Ukraine should be allowed to join Nato’s “membership application plan” - but that next month’s Nato summit in Bucharest may not be the right moment for this.
*John McCain, the Republican candidate in this year’s US presidential election, will meet Mr Brown in London today for talks that will begin to explore how the two men might work together in the event that the war veteran wins the race for the White House.
It will be the first time Mr Brown and Mr McCain have met and is not regarded as a bet by Downing Street on the outcome of the presidential race. “The two Democratic frontrunners are also very welcome to meet Gordon if they come to London,” a Downing Street insider said last night.
Discussions are likely to touch on Middle East policy, given that Mr McCain and two other senators accompanying him have been in Iraq and Israel this week. Mr Brown also wants to explore Mr McCain’s views on combating climate change.
Mr McCain will also meet David Cameron, the leader of the opposition Conservatives.
Filed by Anita Li under East-West Relations and Russia, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe, Regional Security