“The Russians are clearly in the cat-bird seat.”

If they’re in the cat-bird seat (and intimidating the West), why do they have to publicly harangue even a vassal-state like Belarus to support them? World opinion outside the offices of the New York Times seems to be against them, they haven’t captured Tblisi, the US is entering the region, the Georgian army and government are still in existence….maybe I’m just not smart enought to follow the complexities of the situation, but Russia doesn’t seem to be running away with this one to me.