The United States” recognition of Kosovo has been accompanied by some familiar attacks on Vladimir Putin. According to his critics, the Russian president seeks the Finlandization of Europe and is a grave threat to America. In opposing Russia, Putin’s neoconservative and neoliberal enemies have been willing to support the birth of an Islamic state in the newly minted Kosovo and even shelve the war of terror to back Chechen rebels through organizations such as the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya. But beyond the propaganda, Putin’s real crime is that he has refused to play by the rules of globalization. In fact, he has done something remarkably, indeed, unheard of in most Western countries”he has sought to enact policies that truly are in Russia’s interest. Instead of demonizing Putin, a saner course of action for the U.S. would be to extend the olive branch to Russia and recognize her as a nation of the greater West”a transnational cultural body of which we, too, are a part (or should hope to be.)