St. Petersburg will host Russia's debut summit of leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations on July 15-17.
And Igor Shuvalov, Russia's sherpa to the club of rich nations, said, "We are not preparing any surprises for anyone, [but] are acting according to a plan, and we do not expect any surprises."
Shuvalov said there was speculation that difficulties had emerged in relations between Russia and the United States and given that bilateral talks on Russia's accession to the World Trade organization were yet to be completed, one of the countries could present an unpleasant surprise at the meeting next month.
But the aide said this was unlikely to be on the cards. "We would like to avoid any surprises both from us and our partners," he said.
