Georgia’s pea-brained hothead of a president decided to provoke Russia by invading South Ossetia, this while the Olympics are on too. Naturally the Western media are siding with Saakashvilli, who has them well and truly conned (“Saakashvili as a propaganda phenomenon”, RIA Novosti). This thread at NASASpaceflight.com speculates whether the hostilites will affect the ISS partnership, seeing as the USA has sided with Georgia (whose military has been trained by U.S. forces). Though as one notes, the U.S. invasion of Iraq didn’t affect the partnership.
Some blog commentaries: Da Russophile (beginning from this entry); Saakashvilli’s War at Sean’s Russia Blog. The Western media is generally useless for anything approaching impartial reporting when regards to Russia (some exceptions: “Russo-Georgian conflict is not all Russia’s fault”, Christian Science Monitor; “Plucky little Georgia? No, the cold war reading won’t wash”, Guardian).
