What is the Times Thinking?

The NYTimes has printed an op-ed from Russian President Vladimir Putin. I understand the need for newspapers to print a range of views, but there is no journalistic obligation to print propaganda. Did the editors not find it extraordinarily rich for Mr. Putin to be discoursing on democracy? And while his view that Americans are a lot less "exceptional" than we tend to think we are is a view widely, and understandably, held in large parts of the world, it is rich to hear this coming from Mr. Putin who would love nothing better to make sure America is a less exceptional player on the world stage in the future, allowing him greater opportunities to prop up vicious dictators like Assad. And, calls for peace from Putin must be read differently at the Times from the way they would be read, say, in Chechnya. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.