Divide and Conquer; Washington and Moscow are once again vying for power.

Byline: Joe Studwell

Last week the American guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook steamed into the Black Sea port of Odessa flying the stars and stripes. Ukraine's top military brass welcomed her in, along with officers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Greece, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania and Turkey--all in Ukraine for a major joint exercise with NATO code-named Sea Breeze 2007.

No wonder Russia feels a little paranoid. A battle for influence--or new Great Game between Moscow and the West--now stretches from the Arctic to the Middle East and Central Asia. Vladimir Putin may talk of restoring Russian might, but the reality is that the Kremlin's sway over its neighbors has declined dramatically under his watch. Since Putin came to power in 2000, NATO has signed up Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and is actively courting Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova--all of which have also shaken off pro-Moscow governments and are busy building ties with the West.

"We, Russia's neighbors, are not Russian property, but living, developing organisms," Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told NEWSWEEK. "We decided to break free. The Kremlin believes we became part of the American camp, but that is not exactly true--the truth is that we are connected by common democratic values."

The resurgent Kremlin, meanwhile, is doing everything it can to claw back its lost influence. Moscow's top priority: to stop the United States from encroaching on post-Soviet space. First and foremost, that means killing off U.S. plans to install antiballistic-missile batteries in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic--notionally intended to protect Europe from Iran, but which the Kremlin believes could be a threat to its own nuclear capability.

Vladimir Putin has been collecting diplomatic chips around the world in order to push the United States back. Moscow continues to oppose Kosovar independence, hoping at some point to trade it for an end to NATO expansion or missile defense. Russia has also been playing a double game on Iran, supporting U.S.-led calls to isolate Tehran through sanctions as punishment for its nuclear program while at the same time inviting Iran to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, an alliance of Asian states led by Russia and China. "Russia shares American fears [on Iranian nukes]," says regional analyst Vyacheslav Polikarpov of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "But Putin ...