The irony never, ever stops!

"I'm a Big" Dick Cheney is visiting Georgia (not the one with the Waffle Museum) where he has accused Russia of being a bully. I guess, as a member in good standing of the undead, he can't actually see his reflection in a mirror, can he?

Whatever you do don't mention Kosovo!

The French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, with a supporting chorus from London and Washington, has declared Russia's recognition of the Independence of Georgia's want-away regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as a violation of international law. I hear echoes of something from the recent past.

How do you say....

..."new world order? I'll show you some new world order!" in Russian? Feeling their oats the Russians have now issued a thinly veiled threat to Poland over it's deal to sigh up to the American son-of-the-son-of-the-son-of-Star-Wars. The threat was so thinly veiled that nuclear weapons were mentioned.

It takes a lot to laugh...

...it takes a Bush to cry. Apparently unaware that he shot his own moral legs out from under him and his country sometime age Captain Codpiece accuses the Russians of "bullying and intimidation".

I think it's time for a drink!

Georgia on my mind

Am I the only one who is thinking that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili might have had a bit of nudge from someone that set him off on his colossal misadventure in South Ossetia? Perhaps in the form of one of those deliberately misinterpretable messages such as the one that sent Saddam Hussein into Kuwait? There is an election coming up and this hopefully short lived conflict gives The Aged One a chance to be bellicose and strut his questionable national security credentials.

Stop me if this sounds familiar at all

An enemy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, this time a Georgian billionaire (no not Ted Turner - the real Georgia), has died under mysterious circumstances in London. The death of Badri Patarkatsishvili is being treated as suspicious by the Met (although there is no mention of Polonium-210 this time).

Nice work if you can get it

Russia's President and soon to be Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is also Time Magazine's person of the year, has managed to salt away at least 40 billion USD from his annual salary of around 80,000 USD. He must have a hell of an aggressive savings plan.

Nyet!

A photograph of two Russian policemen kissing, along with other items, has been banned from an exhibition that is to travel to Paris for a show at the Maison Rouge by Russia's culture minister, Alexander Sokolov. Mr. Sokolov has said that he believes allowing these items to be exhibited in Paris, internationally known for its conservatism, would bring shame on the Russian nation.

If Russia replaces a presidential run off...

...with a chess match Vladimir Putin's handpicked successor could be in trouble as former world chess champion Gary Kasparov decides to run for president.