You Can Take the Commie Out of the KGB...

Our old buddy Vlad Putin is still the same old Vlad he was when he was a KGB man back when the Russians were still Soviets:

Nicolas Sarkozy saved the President of Georgia from a threat by Vladimir Putin to depose him from power and "hang him by the balls," according to an account that emerged today from the Elysée Palace.

The Russian Prime Minister told Mr Sarkozy of his plans for deposing the Tbilisi government and disposing of President Saakashvili when the French leader was in Moscow last August to broker a cease-fire in Georgia.

Nice. I imagine old Vlad will not be too happy about the wimpy French (but I'm redundant) President revealing the details of a meeting he had with him. Saakashvili grew up under Soviet oppression so he has to have some intestinal fortitude. It makes one wonder what Mr. Putin will propose to do to the future President Obama?

I foresee Russia trying to supplant al-Qaeda as being the biggest thorn in the side of the US over the next five years. Welcome to the big time, President-elect O. Note that Putin has not started to assert himself again until the end of the Bush years.