But if we are really to trust Medvedev's words on freedom of the media and "legal nihilism", we need to see some concrete action. Two cases that have hit the news recently in Russia can be seen as a test as to whether he really is committed, as his words suggest, to moving towards a more liberal style of rule in Russia – and, just as important, whether he is capable of achieving it.

In fact, it's clear Czech leaders are excited to be under the U.S. military's protective wing, and the same goes for Georgia's efforts to join NATO. Poland, which the U.S. hopes will also host part of the missile defense system, is still holding out, but that seems to be mostly about the Poles negotiating a better deal. These countries, even if purely for cynical reasons, see cooperating with the U.S. as a strategic advantage. Russia, on the other hand, only seems to influence other nations by undermining their governments or shutting off their energy supplies. This can work in bordering countries like Georgia or Ukraine, but places like the Czech Republic and Poland no longer have to fear Russian tanks rolling down the street. There's a lesson here: For all the talk of the Putin/Medvedev tandem's international assertiveness, they seem to lose a lot more battles than they win. And despite everything that has gone wrong in the last eight years, the United States still seems to be much better at making and keeping friends than the Russians.

Our source said: "We very strongly believe the Litvinenko case to have had some state involvement." Newsnight has also learned that officers at MI5 believe they thwarted an attempt last summer to kill another Russian dissident, Boris Berezovsky. The BBC's source said the Berezovsky incident showed "continued FSB willingness to consider operations against people in the West".

BP has been treating Russians as subjects By Mikhail Fridman Today an extraordinary meeting of the board of TNK-BP, the oil joint venture, has been called in Moscow to remove Robert Dudley from his role as chief executive. Viktor Vekselberg, a 12.5 per cent share-holder in TNK-BP and chair of the board compensation committee, has also made a formal request to BP to nominate an independent candidate to the post. This is the latest development in our attempts to reverse years of underperformance at TNK-BP. We have been left with no choice. Sadly, BP has refused to engage meaningfully with any of the proposals we have made in recent years. Rather than talk to us, it has chosen to misrepresent our objectives and the nature of the dispute between us.

Nicholas Daniloff says that, although both sides know more about each other today, there are still many misperceptions. He says, while America tends to view Russia as a democracy and "probably a friend," for Russians, the "love-hate relationship seems to live on." He says Russians are quick to blame the United States for things that go wrong. According to Mr. Daniloff, it has become almost a "national pastime" for the U.S. press to criticize those in power, whereas in Russia those in power are suspicious of media criticism. In the post-Soviet period, he says, the regimes in the successor states, especially those in Central Asia, see little benefit in "looking problems straight in the eye" and tend to suppress dissident views. In the 1960's, Nicholas Daniloff explains, censorship was quite strict with hundreds of forbidden topics, and it was difficult for foreign journalists to have "any kind of relationship" with Soviet citizens.

At present, about four-fifths of Kazakhstan's oil has nowhere to go but through Russia's pipeline system. Half of the rest is exported through the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi, the seaside capital of the formerly rebellious Georgian province of Ajaria. The other half of the rest goes to China, which wishes to quadruple its oil imports from Kazakhstan from 100,000 to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the decade, although Kazakhstan, perhaps because of its experience with Russia, is hesitating at the prospect.

Some countries have better reputations than they deserve. The Netherlands, for example, emerged from World War II with a nobler image than they warranted. In Poland, however, just the opposite held true. Russia today also seems to be a place whose image is worse than the reality. Part of the problem, as always in Russia, is the weight of the past. The country can't seem to shake off the legacy of its brutality and injustice in the 19th and 20th centuries, which can be summed up in two words -- pogrom and Gulag. And so it didn't help that Vladimir Putin's presidency was littered with corpses in Shakespearean profusion. Spin and hype can't do much for that. But what can turn things around are dramatic acts of enlightened clemency. It is an ideal time to free former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Having served half his sentence, he has the right to appeal for early release. Releasing him would win great good will for the new presidency of Dmitry Medvedev without necessarily reflecting badly on his predecessor. On the other hand, piling more years onto Khodorkovsky's sentence will only make Medvedev look weak and malicious, at best.