Russia and its Sphere of Influence

As Glenn commented, much of the trouble with Putin's Russia is that it wants the Soviet Union's sphere of influence back. The first problem with that concept was that the reach of that sphere was open-ended. Every part of the world potentially belonged. Another problem was that it wasn't so nice to live under Moscow's influence because you couldn't really make your own decisions. This is why after the Cold War countries like the Czech Republic asked to join that other sphere (some, in a simplification, would call it the U.S. sphere of influence)--NATO, the EU. The "West" doesn't explicitly seek to threaten Putin's Russia, but by virtue of what it is, and by virtue of what Putin's Russia has become, it does. Do we care? Or rather: which do we care about more, Putin's bullying antics, or the right of independent nations such as the Czech Republic or Ukraine to choose their own internationial allegiances? As an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal points out, giving in to Putin on missile defense in Europe (aimed against Iran, remember, not Russia) would go some way toward reintroducing Moscow's influence in Eastern and Central Europe. It would also abandon new, vulnerable allies who have taken political risks believing we'd stand by them. I'm not saying we should move to a mindless, reflexive policy of confrontation with Russia, but at the same time, we can't allow ourselves to be blackmailed either.