The best thing that President Bush has done on his tour of Eastern Europe and the Balkans was stand up for the independence of Kosovo, despite the threats of Serbia. The next best was to stand up for those countries themselves against the threats of Russia.

It’s a pity that he hasn’t put more effort in the past six years into supporting democracy in that region, a more fruitful target than Iraq, and into resisting the influence of Russia, rather than becoming so consumed by the apparent threat of al-Qaeda. The question is how he should repay the region’s adoration of the US (and for a lesson in the dangers of taking it for granted, look at Turkey).

If Texas ever palls for Bush as a retirement destination, then Albania would be his next choice. Surely no other leader would greet Bush as “the greatest and most distinguished guest we have ever had”, as did Sali Berisha, the Prime Minister, on Sunday. But Albania, not a country much inhibited by global fashion, seemed oblivious to the unpopularity of its guest elsewhere; it named a street in front of parliament after him (and a beauty salon after Laura Bush), issued three postage stamps bearing his portrait, and gave him a 21-gun salute, while the streets of Tirana were filled with people wearing precariously tall Uncle Sam top hats, chanting “Boosh-ie”.

Its 3.6 million people, most Muslim, have embraced the US’s promotion of democracy more enthusiastically than any of the US’s supposed allies in the Middle East, after 40 years of a particularly isolating interpretation of Communism under Enver Hoxha. It supported warmly the US’s intervention in Kosovo in 1999 on behalf of its ethnic Albanian majority. Some trace the passion of Albania to the aftermath of the First World War, when President Woodrow Wilson prevented it being carved up by its neighbours.

Bush’s welcome by cheering crowds yesterday in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, was only slightly less gushing, even though many US flags were hung upside down.

Both countries laid gifts at the feet of the superpower, sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bulgarian parliament recently extended the Iraq mission until March 2008, and last year Bulgaria, a Nato member since 2004, agreed to let US troops use its facilities.

But while professing gratitude, Bush gave little in return. Bulgaria, dependent on Russian energy (and nervous since Russia interrupted supplies to Ukraine and Belarus ), wants assurances of US support, plus promises that the proposed US missile shield will cover it, too. It also wants its citizens to be exempt from needing visas to visit the US; the US has maintained that Bulgaria (and 11 other European Union members) is not ready to join the visa-waiver programme. It is unlikely to shift until Bulgaria makes more progress on corruption, a point troubling Brussels as well.

Albania wants to be part of Nato, which Bush warmly but noncommittally supported and, above all, it wants Kosovo’s independence. Here, he came closest to an outright call for a deadline for talks, despite equivocating about what he had pledged (“What exactly did I say? I said ‘deadline’? OK, yes, then I meant what I said.”).

He was right to say it, despite the threats yesterday from Vojislav Kostunica, the Serb Prime Minister, who said that Serbs would never forgive the US if it “gave” the breakaway province to the Albanian majority. But the US stance was a warning to Russia, too, that despite its threats to veto the proposition in the UN Security Council, it may not be able to do anything if Kosovo, on its own, declares independence.

Russia’s sulky aggression in the past week may remind the US of the need to repay the adulation of those on Europe’s borders. Too many — notably Poland — felt aggrieved by a perceived neglect as the US poured its attention on to Iraq. Turkey’s new prickliness and its complaint that the US is taking it for granted is a warning of where such neglect can lead.

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