DAVID Cameron will use a visit to Moscow next week to try to unfreeze UK-Russian relations in face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin – the first high-level British meeting with the Russian Prime Minister for more than four years.

While the Prime Minister will meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, it will be his discussions with Mr Putin, tipped to return to the presidency next spring, that will be regarded as the most crucial part of his two-day visit.

The astonishing freezing of relations with Mr Putin goes back to the assassination in London of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. At the time, the former KGB agent and prominent Putin critic was a British citizen, who died a grisly death due to poisoning from radioactive polonium.

The Russian government has steadfastly refused a UK request to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, another ex-KGB agent, who is the prime suspect in the case. He is now a Russian MP.

Mr Cameron’s visit will be the first a British premier has made in five years and will be at Mr Medvedev’s request. While it is not aimed at resetting relations between London and Moscow, it is hoped that by the end of it the process of re-engagement will have begun. While the PM and his predecessor, Gordon Brown, had several meetings with Mr Medvedev, 45, and relations with him are said to be good, there has been no real contact with Mr Putin, 58, since Tony Blair had a blazing row with the ex-Russian president in July 2007.

Mr Putin did telephone Mr Brown briefly to congratulate him on becoming PM but that was the last contact he had with any British minister or official.

The fact that he will have talks with Mr Cameron will fuel speculation that the Russian Prime Minister intends to seek a return to the presidency in the March elections.

The one-to-one talks are also likely to touch on BP whose Moscow offices were raided last week by bailiffs and special forces.

Recently, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said he hoped Mr Cameron’s visit would help “make our relations strategically stable”.

Whitehall is adamant that it will work with whoever gets elected as president next spring given not only Russia’s geopolitical importance but also its value as a trading partner. Last year, Britain exported nearly £6 billion of goods and services to the world’s 11th largest economy. At present, around 600 UK companies do business with the Federation.