Tsar Putin

Russia's autocratic President announced today: "I'm the world's only true democrat," Reuters reports.

These comments follow a series of capricious moves by Putin, designed to oppose president Bush's aim to install a missile defense shield in Czechoslovakia and Poland. Putin has even suggested nuclear warheads might be pointed toward Europe.

Bush's response? A quick visit to the Czech Republic and Poland before the G8 summit in Germany.

Why would Putin think that an escalation in rhetoric and violent intimidation would encourage the U.S. to not want a missile shield?