This is a great article on the post Russo-Georgia War. This one point had me thinking:
But I think mostly the Russian leaders feel something worse, which is fear. The Russian leaders picture their country in a terrifyingly vulnerable position, not unlike how Israel sees itself. Fear, not "humiliation," led Russia to invade Georgia--a fear of utter destruction facing their own country. Russian diplomats have expressed this fear openly during the last few months. I have heard them to do it--speaking aloud, with hot conviction, about an "existential danger" to Russia, posed by Georgia.
I think this may be a consequence of having your country ruled by former KGB agents. Spies are always looking for a hidden plot or secret double-dealing that is aimed at throwing them out of power or killing them off. The KGBocrats in Moscow are automatically paranoid as a reflex action. It took that mentality to survive as a KGB agent. The KGBocrats look at Georgia as weapon of the West aimed directly at the heart of Russia.
The KGBocrats could also view US missiles in Poland as being secretly aimed at Moscow and not there to stop a potential Iranian ICBM. When the Russians are given the opportunity to tour the missile bases they refuse. They figure that they will be shown fake missiles or dummy consoles so why bother?
You can see that any maneuvering whether political, economic, or militarily in their sphere of influence will be countered to fit their paranoid thinking. The worst part is an irrational enemy that is motivated by fear is capable of almost anything. You can't game a Bear that thinks his back is against the wall even when it isn't. It makes me wonder if Putin sleeps in the closet at night holding a pistol with a silencer like Eric Bana in Munich?
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