Chess is a slow game. One has to be ready to ignore provocations, lose a few pawns and turn the hubris of others into their own entrapment. For years there has been rising resentment within Russia. Some of this is inevitable: the loss of empire, a burning sense of grievance and the fear that in the 1990s, amid domestic chaos and economic collapse, Russia's vi ... Read more »

Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, warned Russia today that its actions in Georgia could undermine relations with the United States "for years to come".

But Mr Gates, in a briefing to reporters at the Pentagon, said that there was no chance that America could get militarily involved in the conflict and the US would only send those forces necessary for the distribution of humanitarian supplies.

Giving what appeared to be a relatively pragmatic assessment of the crisis, the former CIA chief said that Russia had taken advantage of last week's eruption of violence in the Caucasus to send a blunt warning to Georgia and other former Soviet states not to get too close to the West.