Russian Roulette

Friends,
So this war is about recovery of national pride after the fall of the wall? This is scarily, very much like post WWI Germany. We get the idea and now fear Russia, once again. Now stop the killing.

Peace and Love,
Rev O

Russia is forfeiting standing in world Financial Times of London
An autocratic Russia will never get to where it wants to be in the 21st century by behaving like a 19th-century power
"The fighting between Russia and Georgia over the separatist enclave of South Ossetia appeared to ignite in a sequence of improvised if macho moves, fuelled by overblown rhetoric on both sides, overbidding by Tbilisi and overreaction by Moscow. But Russia – in this conflict manifestly led by the prime minister Vladimir Putin rather than Dmitry Medvedev, his successor as president – needs to consider very carefully where its wholly disproportionate action is going to leave Russia’s standing in the world."

"What does Russia want from this? The Putin project has always had as its centre the projection of rebuilt state power and the recovery of Russian pride after the humiliations of losing the cold war and the collapse of the Soviet empire."

"Russia’s behaviour in the southern Caucasus is a reversion to spheres of influence and balance of power politics. If Moscow really believes the west is behaving the same way, that is the sort of difference a new strategic partnership with the EU would resolve. This way, it will never get one. In fact, Russia will never get to where it wants to be in the 21st century by behaving like a 19th-century power."

Russia is forfeiting standing in world FT London