Russia has consistently obstructed the international community's efforts to impose sanctions on the rogue states of North Korea and Iran. Yet, Russia immediately proceeds headlong to impose sanctions on the increasingly democratic Georgia no matter what the international community wants.

In other words, we see before us the Neo-Soviet Union, a country devoid of even the vaguest sense of accountability or the rule of law, propounding to an incredulous world the idea that Russia should have whatever Russia wants and all other countries should also have what Russia wants. Like the Emperor with New Clothes, isolated Russia cannot see that it is in no position even to make requests much less demands, that it cannot go it alone in the world. It is blinded by self-destructive hubris, exactly the same phenomenon that brought the USSR to its knees.