Relations, he told the BBC, "should not be business as usual - they should be betterthanusual because there is a lot of untapped potential in developing Russia-EU relations on all fronts".
Helped by his soft approach and by a swing in Greece's public mood from hostility to sympathy after two terrible earthquakes in Turkey (and another in Greece), the two countries, so long riven by enmity, are for the moment getting on much betterthanusual.