Last week’s meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, an international gathering of Russia-watchers, revealed subtly different attitudes from Europe and the US to Vladimir Putin’s pronouncements. Could they contain the seeds of a less confrontational approach

A mistake commonly made by new national leaders is not to realise that their words now reach a wider world. George W. Bush was signally slow to learn that what he intended for domestic consumption resounded far beyond the United States. If she wins the presidency on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton – as a former First Lady and Secretary of State – could be the exception.

No less savvy in the matter of audiences is Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin. After 15 years at the top, and now in his third presidential term (after an interlude as Prime Minister), he knows full well that anything he says will carry international, as well as national, weight. What he cannot entirely guarantee even now, however, is that wider public’s response. An attempt to change the tone is still heard as the same old story. In an autumn in which Russia and the West have been engaged in an almost constant shouting match, the language remains heated. Underlying assumptions appear ever further apart.