WHEN IT comes to tweaking the West's noses, there are few better exponents that Vladimir Putin. Last week, the Russian leader was at it again. During a whistlestop European tour which took in Vienna and Luxembourg, he showed no sign of easing up in his opposition to the proposed US missile shield, made clear his dislike of the UN's plans for an internationally monitored scheme to give independence to Kosovo and insisted the European Union should think again before doing anything which might damage relations with Moscow.

He also showed that he would not be told what to do about human rights: "We in Russia should listen to the criticism against us," he said in Vienna. "But, also, the European partners should listen to the accusations against them."

Putin does not take kindly to what he regards as peremptory demands from the West. He is also under pressure from the military, who are arguing that, as it now has the spending power, Russia should start re-equipping its armed forces. The expansion of Nato eastwards has also made Russian commanders nervous: they object to seeing Western military hardware on their borders and former allies such as the Baltic states embracing the transatlantic alliance.

All this helps to explain Putin's hardline attitude to the British request for the extradition of Andrei Lugovoy for his alleged involvement in the murder of the former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. And apart from it being a matter of national pride, Putin is nearing the end of his presidency - he stands down next April - and he wants to be remembered as a leader who made Russia strong again.

"When Russia was down and weak we did very little to help, but rather systematically sought to buttress our own positions at Russia's expense," claims Timothy J Colton of Harvard University's Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. "Now Russia's back and it's not going to tolerate this."

Nowhere is this clash of political sensibilities seen more clearly than in the opposing attitudes towards affairs in the Middle East. Putin was, and remains, a critic of British and US policy in Iraq, and he disagrees with the attitude being taken towards Iran. Partly it's a question of differing ideologies but mainly it's to do with trade. Putin sees no reason to stall Iran's nuclear ambitions, on the grounds that it should be allowed the technology for non-military purposes and that every country has the right to develop affordable energy supplies. Russia has provided funds and technology for the construction of the nuclear facility at Bushehr, and last week Putin repeated his insistence that Russia would not withdraw that help.

When President Bush called on Russia and China to support sanctions against Iran, Putin replied: "We should find solutions that would not violate Iran's right to use modern technologies, but would calm the international community's concerns over its possession of nuclear weapons."

It was hardly the response of a leader who was about to tell his nuclear scientists to throw in the towel and come back home.