TODAY: EU-Russia Summit to be held next week; new row with Lithuania; federal programs; corruption and Russia’s “rotten” legal system. Leading up to next week’s EU-Russia Summit, European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson says that Russia and the European Union must work together to prevent disputes over trade and agree on a “grand energy bargain” focused on security of supply and demand. “Let’s be honest: each suspects the other of employing double standards, of using the energy weapon as an instrument of politics,” he said. Mandelson denies that a new row between Russia and Lithuania over the banning of Soviet symbols will affect the summit. Ostensibly, the EU views its relations with Russia as one of its top priorities, and hopes that Russia will join the World Trade Organization by November 2009, but Russian MP Konstantin Kossachov, who chairs the Duma’s foreign policy committee, is “pessimistic” about the prospects for a new partnership treaty.