The problem with the Cold War is how hard it is for writers to make sentences linking the intensity of it and the title of the war. After all, saying the Cold War is heating up seems a bit odd considering cold and heat oppose each other.

Nevertheless, here we are at a new crossroad of the Cold War where things are heating up. Forget the temporary truce between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics...er, I mean Russia (like the name change means anything). The Cold War has been raging since it started back in the late 1940's and still alive today. The period between 1991 and today could go down in history as the second Detente.

Sure, the names have changed. The colors have changed. The forms of governments (well, only on the case of the Soviets) have changed. The change that has occurred in Russia appears to be nothing more than a smokescreen. After all, the Montreal Expos moved from Canada to the United States and became the Washington Nationals prior to the 2005 Major League Baseball system. They shuffled out some of their players and picked up some new ones. They changed their colors and team name.

But the Nationals and the Expos are still one of the same just as the Soviets and the Russians are still one of the same. Sure, plenty of things have changed but what has not changed is that the Russians are still one of America's enemies despit the short lull the past decade where both nations tried to appear to be allies.

This was even more evident earlier today when Russian President Vladimir Putin charged that the Cold War arms race is far from over and that the Russians would work to overcome "fortress" America's military force.

Putin, responding to harsh charges by United States Vice President Dick Cheney, charged that the US was a voracious wolf in the international community by trying to push forward its own interests instead of trying to further democracy.

"Comrade wolf knows whom to eat, he eats without listening, and he's clearly not going to listen to anyone," said Putin.

Apparently Putin forgot the terrorist attack on the United States back on the eleventh of September, 2001. Perhaps he forgot his charge that terrorism is the plague of the 21st century or his call by the international community to root out terrorism. Maybe that is why he joined the League of Cowards who refused to back the United States and the United Kingdom in the cause for freedom in Iraq against the tyrannical Saddam Hussein. Maybe that was because his country had just been rocked by a deadly terrorist train blast in February, 2004, where more than 30 people were killed and an estimated 150 were injured.

Or perhaps Putin does not care. He comes off as a cold, sinister man who works for nothing but his own agenda. Let us not forget his plans in 2004 to produce a "radically restructured" political system that would remove the power of the people to elect governors and independent lawmakers that came on the heels of a bloody takeover of a Russian elementary school by rebels.

For those who have watched "Star Wars", Putin bears a strong resemblance to the role played by actor Ian McDiarmid of Palpatine, the senator-turned-Supreme Chancellor-turned-Emperor. In the films, Palpatine very carefully collects power into his domain while at the same time destroying democracy in the Galactic Senate. Eventually, he disbands the Senate and democracy as a whole, becoming a dictator before his reign is brought to an end at the end of the sixth film by his former ally, Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker.

Sound familiar? It should. Putin has been trying to do the exact same thing since he obtained office after Boris Yeltsin left in 1999. He has worked to destroy democracy in Russia and has been trying to build up secret weapons in a new arms race with the United States.

"It is premature to speak of the end of the arms race," said Putin. "It is in reality rising to a new technological level. (Cue the insidious laughter associated with the Emperor in "Star Wars")".

What exactly did Cheney do to tick off this possible dictator-to-be?

The vice president had charged that "opponents of reform are seeking to reverse the gains of the last decade" and that the "[Russian] government has unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of her people."

He later added that Russia was using "tools of intimidation or blackmail" in association with carrying out policy. The speech was so fiery that one Western diplomat called it the most biting speech thrown at Russia since Reagan's 1987 order to Mikhail Gorbachev, to "tear down this wall" regarding the Berlin Wall.

Is Cheney wrong? Russia, well, mainly Putin, has worked to effectively re-establish the sort of dictatorship that existed under the tyrannies of Lenin and Stalin. Putin has redeclared the arms race as on and continues to suppress the free speech of his citizens.

If you check the thermometer, you'd see a sharp rise in the temperature after today. The Cold War is heating up (or becoming very icy if you want to go with that instead) again.