My impression is that the Russians were better prepared and are doing a better job than the Georgians. The tunnel is not blown. And the Russians were ready to roll and in fact did roll in the space of a few hours/days and entered combat effectively. The whole thing implies that they were ready to pounce…and that the Georgians did not purposefully plan how to pounce themselves. The Russians will use their speed to push the advantage in Ossetia and that will offset the tunnel problem and once they control the province on land and air, then Georgia can do little. They will have missed their chance. Also Russia does NOT need to go all the way to conquering Georgia. They will just annex south Ossetia.