Al

The usual beat up the Westerner rhetoric. Nothing new here.

Compared to Putin, Sashkavilli should be nominated for sainthood. But all that is irrelevant. Russia is making a typical great power move that has been seen hundreds of times before. More interesting is whether or not it will ultimately mean the end of Putin.

Russian hegemony depends more on the weak will of the Europeans than it does any inherent Russian strength. Other than the steppes themselves Russia has no strategic depth. The economy is a one trick pony dependent on an historical anomaly in energy prices. We always assume that trends will continue forever, but they do not. As surely as oil prices reached for the moon they will one day crash to earth taking the Russian economy with them.

Putin will get away with Georgia. Let’s see if he reaches for Ukraine which has 10 times the population and 100 times the military strength, not to mention highways that lead directly from and to Europe.