It has become almost a cliche in the Western press to call President Vladimir Putin a cold and calculating pragmatist. But nothing could be further from the truth – Putin is a passionate and emotional man. This comes through every time he talks about issues that genuinely worry him deeply, and especially about Chechnya.

These qualities emerged most fully in his recent interview with French magazine Paris Match. Putin spoke convincingly, emotionally and sincerely, which all made a clear impression on his interviewer – well-known French writer Marek Halter. Previously, Putin had also made a strong impression on many Western leaders.

Here was how Putin described the events that led to the second Chechen war: "But I must say, if it hadn't been for the invasion of Dagestan last summer, nothing would have happened, because Russia was absolutely unprepared, and more importantly, didn't want any war or bloodshed."

There can be no doubting Putin's sincerity. But there are no less sincere and convincing supporters of another point of view. I'd especially like to draw Putin's attention not to the words of some "traitor" like Andrei Babitsky, but to the respectable patriot and editor of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Vitaly Tretyakov.

Tretyakov is a convinced supporter of Putin and an active ideologue of the Chechen war who has consistently branded opponents of the war as "anti-state." It's probably from Tretyakov that Putin borrowed the formula on "mass media campaigning against the state," which turned up in his address to the parliament.

This is what Tretyakov wrote in his newspaper on Oct. 12, 1999: "It's perfectly obvious that the Chechens were lured into Dagestan, they were allowed to get tangled in this affair so as to have legal pretext for restoring federal authority in the republic and beginning the active phase of the fight against terrorists who had collected in Chechnya. It's clear that this was an operation organized by the secret services (don't confuse this with the apartment block bombings) and had political sanction from the very top."

Tretyakov writes with pride in this text of the operation organized by Russian secret services to have Shamil Basayev march on Dagestan, as if it were an incontestable fact, an axiom perfectly obvious for his well-informed readers. It says something, too, that his statement was not denied nor called into question either by the secret services or by those who Tretyakov is convinced gave "political sanction for the operation at the very top."

Putin is equally emotional when it comes to another favorite issue that he has been giving more and more time to of late.

"Russian soldiers today are on the front line of the fight with Islamic extremism. Unfortunately, few notice this. Today, we are witnessing the creation of an extremist international running along a so-called line of instability beginning in the Philippines and ending in Kosovo. This is very dangerous for Europe, above all, because of the large numbers of Muslims living there. This really is a terrorist international, and Russia is on the front line of the fight against this international terrorism. And Europe really ought to be grateful to us for this and bow low before us because so far, unfortunately, we're fighting on our own."

Well, it no doubt is psychologically more comforting to look upon the Chechen war not as a fight with a mutinous colony that has dragged on for 200 years now, but as a crusade against Islamic terrorism. What's more, it could also have served as a successful PR move to present the war to Western public opinion.

The problem is that this propagandistic myth about Russia as a shield defending the civilized world from modern barbarians, a myth it seems we ourselves have seriously started to believe, is dangerous for the future of Russia. It won't convince anyone in the West, but it will definitely ruin our relations with the Islamic world. And the Islamic world isn't just our great neighbor, it's inside us. I assume that Putin knows not only that Europe has a large Muslim population, but that Muslims make up 18 percent of Russia's population.

(Andrei Piontkovsky is director of the Center of Strategic Research.)