RUSSIA: The lavish show in St Petersburg won some, lost some for the Russian President, writes Daniel McLaughlin.
As the security melted away, the road-blocks came down and Russians re-emerged, blinking, into their lavishly renovated city, President Vladimir Putin escaped his hometown's post-party hangover and headed for the Évian meeting of G8 leaders, probably congratulating himself on a job well done.
Mr Putin treated dozens of heads of state over the last four days to a whirl of dinners and cultural diversions that focused the world's attention on his native city, and on his ability to juggle the roles of urbane world leader and domestic tough guy.
From meeting the motley leaders of former Soviet nations on Friday, Mr Putin wooed EU heads of state on Saturday and President George Bush yesterday, in meetings that delivered no obvious breakthroughs but helped heal Iraq war wounds and show Russians - who go to parliamentary elections in December and face a presidential vote next March - that their leader is a major world player.
At the Konstantinovsky Palace, restored for €300 million for St Petersburg's 300th anniversary bash, Mr Putin said war in Iraq had only proved the durability of US-Russian relations and restated the shared commitment to crushing terrorism that bonded the two leaders together after September 11th, 2001.
Both men wanted to draw a line under war in Iraq, critics say; Mr Bush because Baghdad's alleged weapons of mass destruction are proving embarrassingly elusive; Mr Putin, it is clear, because his anti-war coalition with France and Germany created much diplomatic sound and fury while achieving almost nothing.
War went ahead, Saddam was toppled and the United Nations will play a less than central role in getting Iraq back to its feet.
But in Washington and Russia Mr Putin appears to have emerged unscathed from diplomatic defeat and played the magnanimous peacemaker this weekend, putting Mr Bush and his bitterest anti-war enemies in a room together and urging them to kiss and make up.
But while George seemed as friendly as ever with Vladimir, it may take him a while longer to embrace the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, or President Jacques Chirac of France.
Mr Putin also had warm words for Mr Tony Blair, barely a month after mocking the visiting British Prime Minister and his US allies for failing to find Saddam's supposed cache of biological and chemical weapons.
On Saturday Mr Putin said Mr Blair's visit had been far from the washout it had seemed, but a crucial step towards reaching an eventual consensus on a UN resolution on rebuilding Iraq.
In turn he received London's and the EU's blessing to continue a "political process" towards a settlement in Chechnya that many democracy and rights groups say is built on a sham referendum and army brutality towards Chechen civilians.
With EU and US backing for his Chechnya policy, Mr Putin's hand seems free as elections approach, and he first came to power on a hugely popular pledge to mercilessly crush the region's separatist rebels.
In his speeches to EU leaders, the Russian President played heavily on the location of their meeting, the city built by Peter the Great to be his "window on Europe".
Most Russians feel separated from Europe, less by a window than a moat and drawbridge, and Mr Putin fought their corner by calling for visa-free travel to the EU. The possibility of this happening is remote, but as Mr Putin's Communist foes line up to call him a lapdog of the West, it will have done his ratings no harm to be seen throwing a punch or two at Brussels.
With everyone on their best behaviour after the international wrangling over Iraq, this St Petersburg summit was always going to focus on style rather than substance, as the €1.2 billion Russia spent renovating the city suggested.
And while Mr Putin gained explicit US support for Moscow's entry into the World Trade Organisation and Mr Bush's pledge to try and scrap a law that hampers trade with Russia, key questions remain over how far the Kremlin can sway the most crucial White House decisions.
Mr Bush would not guarantee a role for Russian oil firms in post-war Iraq, and Washington is still unhappy with Moscow's determination to build a nuclear power plant in Iran, which the US says may form the basis of a weapons programme for Tehran.
Mr Putin lost the fight for peace in Iraq. With elections just ahead, the last thing he needs is a showdown with the US over Iran, which he knows he can't win.