RUSSIA: Russians watched, rapt, this week as a former KGB spy rode in a gilded carriage with the British queen, clinked glasses with princes and princesses and apparently beguiled a palace dinner party with his first public utterings in English, writes Daniel McLaughlin in Moscow.
And while the death toll in rebel Chechnya climbed inexorably, and the last nationwide independent television channel was silenced, Russia's news media focused hard on President Vladimir Putin and his wife as they clinked glasses with the British aristocracy.
"This is the greatest diplomatic compliment Britain can pay the new Russia," Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper gushed of Queen Elizabeth II's personal invitation to Mr Putin, who became the first Russian head of state to visit Britain since 1874. "The whole visit is literally studded with symbolism, with signals that are being sent both to the two countries' peoples and to the international community," the paper said.
Many commentators saw the visit as signalling a diplomatic truce after months of acrimony between London and Moscow over the war in Iraq; some took major oil and gas deals to be the main substance of the trip; others had longer memories.
Rossiiskaya Gazeta congratulated the British for "having obviously matured sufficiently to forgive the Russians for the murder of the (Tsarist) Romanov family - relatives of Elizabeth II".
"The grievances have passed with Putin," continued the influential Izvestia newspaper. "He has even been lodged at Buckingham Palace; and royal family members - the Duke of York and the Duke of Edinburgh - will be Putin's guides around England and Scotland for three days."
And so it was that the ex-spy, derided by liberals here for restoring many of the KGB's baleful powers to the security services, was whisked from 21-gun salute to lavish palace dinner, from a tour of Edinburgh to talks at 10 Downing Street.
"President Putin's leadership offers hope to Russia and the whole world," British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair told reporters afterwards. "I have no doubt that all of Europe and the rest of the world will share my feelings."
The bonhomie between the two contrasted sharply with the tone of their last meeting, in Moscow in late April, when Mr Putin mocked the failure of British and US troops to find Saddam Hussein or his alleged cache of weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Putin was contrite when reminded of his comments this week. "I am very sad that the comment in Moscow was interpreted that way," he told a press conference. "I never said anything was funny."
While both men insisted the international community's Iraqi war wounds were healed, rights groups poured scorn on Mr Blair's apparent failure to question Mr Putin over the dirty war in Chechnya or the closure of TVS - Russia's last wholly independent and national television channel - over alleged financial problems.
Thanks to state television, though, most Russians' abiding memory of the trip will be that of their leader rubbing shoulders with Britain's royals. It is the image the Kremlin wants them to take to the polls next March.
"Neither Boris Yeltsin nor Mikhail Gorbachev had the honour of being invited by the queen herself," the Moskovsky Komsomolets tabloid said.
"In Russia, the kind of reception President Putin is enjoying in Britain is truly fit for a king."
The President and Prime Minister attended an energy conference at London's Lancaster House on Thursday, focusing on opportunities for British firms in Russia's oil and gas sectors, including plans for a pipeline to bring gas from Siberia to western Europe.
Britain is urging Russia to continue its process of deregulation and privatisation of its energy sector, which has attracted significant interest from UK companies. Unrest in the Middle East has made the vast Russian reserves increasingly attractive to the West, as it seeks to diversify its sources of oil and gas away from the strife-torn region.