Ever since the cold war ended, Russia has been searching in vain for a foreign policy worthy of the great power it thinks it still ought to be. From the mutual disappointments of their early bear-hugging "strategic partnership", through Russia's deep sulk over its loss of empire and influence, to the outright hostility that greeted nato's intervention in Kosovo, western governments too have puzzled over how to manage relations with a country that is too large and well-armed to be overlooked, but all too prickly and unpredictable to be counted on. Vladimir Putin has sensibly tried to counter Russia's drift to the margins of world affairs by presenting himself as a more of a pragmatist to do business with. This autumn, the search for a new strategic understanding with America about nuclear weapons and missile defences, as well as the start of discussions in nato about further enlargement, will test this new pragmatism to the limit.
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