When leaders of the European Union and Russia descend on a small town in Siberia today for their sixmonthly summit meeting, there are high hopes that for once there could be a meeting of minds.

On the Russian side there will be a new and untested president, Dmitry Medvedev, with a chance to show off his thinking. Vladimir Putin, his predecessor and now prime minister, is staying away from Khanty-Mansiysk, an oil-boom town, no doubt to prove he no longer pulls the strings of power. Few people believe that.