The European Union has backed away from labelling Russia an opponent of western interests but still expects Moscow to pursue tougher foreign and domestic policies before the coming elections, internal EU documents show.

The documents, prepared for EU governments before Friday’s EU-Russian summit in Portugal, reflect a new realism in the bloc’s attitude to the Kremlin after the Russophile tendencies of Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schröder and Silvio Berlusconi, the former French, German and Italian leaders.