It seems to me that Russia has been threatened by the US, with something, but I can’t imagine what it would be, besides the Stabilization Fund ($157 billion) being frozen.

Russia will likely lose G8 and OSCE memberships for quite some time (or at least will not be invited to the meetings, while formally being a member), it can forget about WTO and NATO-Russia meetings are also history.

It seems that Putin has miscalculated in his arrogance. He wanted to take Tbilisi and get rid of Saakashvili but couldn’t do it in the time before US response (whatever that was). It is also possible that he was restrained internally. I wonder how much the following things played a role:

- Georgians invading SO to meet advancing Russian forces.
- Georgians leaving Gori to avoid heavy losses.
- US intelligence available to Georgians
- Poor state of Russian military (reportedly Russian tanks were breaking down every few kilometers while moving into Georgia through the tunnel).
- S200 air defence that Ukraine supplied Georgia and Russia did not know about
- Reported anti-tank weapon made by either Israel or BAE

On the flip side, Russia gets to keep SO and Abhazia.