The Kremlin’s blanket ban on European vegetable imports over the cucumber ‘stink’ has, some have said, threatened to poison EU-Russia relations at today’s meeting between President Dmitry Medvedev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman van Rompuy in Nizhny Novgorod.  The Economist has refreshingly turned its attention to the meat and bones of the Europe-Russia rapport, pinpointing some of the other, deeply-rooted concerns which, it suggests, are bound to crop up:

The Russians see Europe as a source of useful technology and a holiday destination; their elites spend time and own property there. But Russia prefers to be judged against other fast-growing BRIC economies rather than an ageing, sclerotic Europe. “Europe is no longer the sole source of inspiration for modernisation in Russia,” says Mr Lukyanov. Russia depends on the EU for half its trade. But trade with China doubled last year.