Although the Cold War has been over for more than a decade, Russia continues to befuddle Western diplomats. Moscow's international influence is a fraction of that of the Soviet Union, its economy is a basket case and it is beset by one domestic political crisis after another, yet the country maintains the world's second-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and is more than capable of frustrating Western diplomatic initiatives. That is why the West must maintain ties to Russia, and why last week's resumption of talks between Moscow and NATO is long overdue.

The break was triggered last March by NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. Moscow cut almost all ties with NATO, including its participation in the Permanent Joint Council, which had been established in 1997 precisely to give the 19 members of the Western alliance a chance to confer with Moscow on security and other issues. Russia condemned the attack for several reasons. Yugoslavia, or at least Serbia, is a traditional ally. NATO's willingness to act without approval from the U.N. Security Council, where Russia has a veto, undercut Moscow's diplomatic leverage. And violating Yugoslav sovereignty to protect an ethnic group set a worrisome precedent at a time when Moscow faced its own insurgencies -- in Chechnya, for example. At the same time, the West has its own complaints about Russian behavior, notably the savage campaign against those Chechen rebels.

Yet no one wants relations to enter a deep freeze. Foreign ministers of NATO governments have been visiting Moscow to consult with the new prime minister and acting president, Mr. Vladimir Putin. Japan has been conducting its own talks in an effort to keep negotiations for a final peace treaty on track. U.S. President Bill Clinton went out of his way last week to say that Mr. Putin was a man with whom he could do business. Still, it took two months of difficult negotiations to work out a visit by NATO Secretary General George Robinson. That call, which came last week, concluded with an agreement to resume discussions.