Ann asks simply, “what is Russian afraid of?”

True, Russia is no longer Soviet. But its ruling clique, led by former President and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, remains steeped in the paranoid, highly controlled, conspiracy-obsessed culture of the old KGB. He and his entourage are not Communists, but neither do they believe in free markets or free societies. Instead, all important decisions must be made in Moscow by a small, unelected group of people who know how to resist sabotage organized from abroad. Events cannot be allowed to just happen; they must be controlled and manipulated. Elections cannot just take place; they must be determined in advance.

In more simpler terms, the Russians are no more than Italian gangsters or the territorial street thugs of our big city streets. Medvedev calling the Georgians morons today showed a shallowness unworthy of more than what you’d hear in a South LA garage. It just so happens the Russian mafia has big weapons at their disposal. They can be reigned in and defeated if the Europeans won’t back down this time.