Wretchard said:

“Once Russia takes the Black Sea ports the Georgians can mine them or fire antiship missiles at whatever is in the harbor. Even if this only does minor damage, it would turn the Eastern Black Sea coast into a warzone and since one third of Russia’s shipping goes via the Black Sea, I think Moscow will soon discover they have just blockaded themselves.”

This is brilliant. Take them down through economic warfare while avoiding direct confrontation. We don’t even need to wait for the Russians to take the Georgian ports. We could arrange for a couple Russian freighters to have mysterious accidents while in the Black Sea. Better yet, arrange for a couple Russian military transports to have mysterious accidents while in the Black Sea. Of course, the Ukranians wouldn’t be too happy about this since it would put a major dent in the Ukraine’s maritime commerce. I wonder if there is some way we could hurt the Russians economically without hurting the Ukrainians?