Given the BBC footage of the Russian troops apparently digging in http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/08/021260.php and no indications of them leaving, what are the odds that Russia is looking for more of a regime-change than is presently being offered? One of the basic points of Russian historical foreign policy was the need to control their immediate neighbors — with their present advantageous position, why stop as long as a non-client regime is still in control of Georgia?

After the local government has been sufficiently modified (cowed/replaced/etc.), Russia could withdraw the greater part of its troops and simply leave the remainder in place as ‘advisors’ that have been ‘invited by local authorities’. Which would fulfill the basic demands of the present ‘linkages’, while still accomplishing Russia’s goals.