The United States, moreover, remained a perfect foil for a leader with pretensions to global leadership. The Bush administration’s incoherent foreign policy included a plan to build a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, which allowed Putin to revive the Old Europe/New Europe divisions that began with the Iraq war, with this split appearing to enhance Russian influence on the continent.
此外，对于具有充当全球领袖之野心的人来说，美国仍然是个完美的陪衬。布什政府不连贯的外交政策包括了在波兰和捷克建立导弹防御系统的计划，这使普京重弹始于伊拉克战争的划分老欧洲和新欧洲的论调，这种划分看来强化了俄罗斯在欧洲大陆的影响。