Tony Blair is preparing to tell Russia that it faces an economic backlash in Europe unless it shows that it shares the West’s democratic values of tolerating dissent and preventing abuses of human rights.

As relations between the two countries sank to their lowest ebb since Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the Prime Minister said that there was no point in making hollow threats against him.

But, speaking in the Commons shortly before leaving for the G8 summit, Mr Blair said that unless there were shared values “people in Europe will want to minimise the business they do with Russia”.

Mr Putin, however, appeared to be in no mood to take lectures. He and Mr Blair met at the customary heads of government dinner that opened the G8 last night. But there was confusion over when Mr Blair would have the chance of holding the “frank conversation” that he had promised with the Russian President. The Prime Minister said in a BBC interview that he wanted to raise Mr Putin’s threat to train nuclear missiles on Europe and the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. But the meeting, originally scheduled for today, will not now happen until lunchtime tomorrow, probably after the main business of the G8 has concluded.

It’s Grrrrr8 (honest)

As the G8 summit begins in Germany, Hugo Rifkind explains everything you need to know – and lots of stuff you don’t

Multimedia

• Audio: Behind the scenes at the G8

• Pictures: G8 summit

BACKGROUND

• Quotes: what Putin told The Times

• Blair reinvented the Middle Ages

• The West is starting this Cold War

• Save the planet: give to China

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Both sides denied a snub and British officials said that the delay was part of the “fluidity” of the G8 process.

The freeze between Mr Putin and some of his colleagues overshadowed the opening of the summit as Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, strove for a meaningful deal on climate change.

Mr Bush will meet Mr Putin for private talks today amid rising anger among European diplomats that their row over US missile defence is distracting world leaders from settling key issues.

Both the US and Russian Presidents assured Mrs Merkel, the summit host, that they were committed to her wider agenda as she appealed to them in separate bilateral meetings for an end to the inflammatory rhetoric that has marred the build-up to the summit.

But European diplomats could not disguise their anger at the Cold War-style invective that they accused Mr Putin of using in an attempt to steal the show.

“Putin’s objective seems to be to divide the EU and the US,” one said. “Is he trying to create a sense of crisis to justify his return as Russian President?”

Mr Blair’s spokesman said that Mr Putin needed to be careful about the perception that his remarks about pointing missiles at Europe had created. It could be counter-productive. Europe was increasingly saying that it could have a good commercial and political relationship with Russia only if it reflected the same values in its actions. He added: “If not, Russia will not attract the investment it needs. Companies will only invest in a country if it believes its investments are secure.”

Britain was giving strong support last night to a last-ditch effort by Chancellor Merkel to save her ambitious plans for targeting greenhouse gases. They want all the G8 leaders to sign up to a statement that includes a target of cutting greenhouse gases by 50 per cent by 2050.

Mrs Merkel is also keen to include a target date of 2009 for reaching international agreement on a climate change framework that will supersede the Kyoto Protocol when it runs out in 2012.

The date has been urged by Sir Nicholas Stern, the British economist who has become a close adviser to Mrs Merkel as she battles to convince the world’s worst polluters – the US and China – to sign a global pact.

But despite President Bush’s dramatic shift to recognise the need for a global goal, she struggled to persuade him yesterday to commit to her target.

The US is also extremely reluctant to sign up to a G8 commitment to work for a new climate change framework under the auspices of the UN. An EU diplomat close to the talks said: “When it comes to multilateralism, the US is from Mars and the EU is from Venus.”

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