In response to the expulsion of Russian diplomats and the recent meeting between U.S. State Department officials and the Chechen "foreign minister," President Vladimir Putin wisely resisted the temptation to echo the chattering classes in both Washington and Moscow, which declared a return of the Cold War. Putin rightly rejected this false analogy, perhaps because he understands that the ideological divide and the perceived symmetry of power between the two superpowers -- two factors central to Cold War dynamics -- are now gone.