There is an amusing and rather revealing story doing the rounds in Brussels about a conversation that took place at last month’s European Union-Russia summit in Stockholm.
In the course of a conversation with European Commission president José Manuel Barroso, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made a mischievous allusion to the EU’s imminent institutional changes, under which Barroso will for the first time deal with a full-time EU president representing the bloc’s 27 governments – Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium’s ex-prime minister.
“I hope your new president will have as good relations with you as my prime minister has with me,” said Medvedev. He followed this up with a sly and knowing glance.
The president was referring, of course, to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, his predecessor, who remains an immensely powerful figure in Russia.
Some EU policymakers detect signs of rivalry between Medvedev and Putin, and – to oversimplify – like to cast the president as the open-minded would-be reformer and the prime minister as the ex-KGB hard nut. And, indeed, Medvedev’s joke could be taken as a hint that his relations with Putin are less than ideal. But perhaps the safest interpretation is just that Medvedev has a good sense of humour – a positive in itself.
Across the globe: Gideon Rachman and his FT colleagues debate international affairs on