How’s this for a study in contradiction? Responding to a reporter’s question about the easing of visa requirements for citizens of the UK to visit Moscow for the Champion’s League final match between Manchester United and Chelsea on May 21, government official Alexei Sorokin told Bloomberg: “This is football, it’s got nothing to do with politics. … Maybe the Champions League final can help to unfreeze diplomatic relations between our two countries.” OK, that’s a breathtaking spin … so sorry about that nettlesome Litvinenko murder, harassment of the British Council and your ambassador, and for stealing from BP – the Kremlin appears to be telling the British public – but here, we’ll cut some red tape and host 50,000 of you for 72 hours for a football match. Are we even now? Taking a page right out of the book of Putin’s most similar homologue, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Russia appears to be directly lobbying British citizens to improve its tarnished image. Perhaps next we’ll see some discounted petrol or heating oil for the U.K.’s poor. Russia’s latest sports diplomacy (not the first) is just one of many other signals quietly coming from Moscow that the period of confrontation with London is over for now, and that Russia wants relations to improve.