Good Editorial on Russia and Georgia

NYT today:

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"President Bush has begun a crisis-induced reassessment of America’s ties with Russia that his successor will have to revise and implement.
Mr. Bush’s father deftly managed the Soviet Union’s dissolution. President Bill Clinton did a poorer job managing Russia’s post-cold-war decline and Mr. Bush has done even worse managing its resurgence.
After criticizing Mr. Clinton for placing too much faith in Boris Yeltsin, Mr. Bush has placed far too much faith in Vladimir Putin. Mr. Bush and the Europeans have willfully looked the other way as Mr. Putin, the president-turned-prime minister, throttled a free press, jailed political rivals and used Russia’s oil and gas riches to blackmail neighbors.
At the same time, Mr. Bush has turned a deaf ear to Russia’s growing list of grievances — many of them illegitimate, but not all. We opposed NATO expansion when Mr. Clinton first championed the idea. Once it began, we agreed that Moscow could not have veto power over which of Russia’s democratic neighbors could apply and join.
President Bush further fueled Russian nationalism and made Mr. Putin’s job easier, when he insisted on building an unproven missile defense system in this country — and then insisted on building another one in Central Europe. (After temporizing for months, Poland embraced the idea this week.)
Mr. Bush also jettisoned a key area for cooperation when he dismissed the need for further nuclear arms control agreements. That decision looks especially frightening today.
Mr. Bush ignored the brewing crisis in Georgia for months. He has now spoken out forcefully against Russia’s aggression. His decision to send military planes with humanitarian supplies to Georgia was unexpectedly deft — forcing Russia to reassess its offensive without stoking a wider war. We hope it works. He must also tell Georgia’s president that he cannot keep baiting Moscow.
Where should Mr. Bush go from here? We believe it would be folly to try to isolate Russia. It is a major economic power with a veto in the United Nations Security Council and has thousands of nuclear weapons. Isolation is far more likely to spawn more resentment and radicalism.
Russia must understand that there will be no business as usual so long as it continues to occupy Georgia and threaten its neighbors. Russia is eager to join the World Trade Organization and sign a trade and security deal with Europe. Both must be put on hold. If Mr. Putin persists, the Group of 8 industrialized nations may have to limit Moscow’s involvement, but we are not ready to embrace Senator John McCain’s call to oust Russia.
Mr. Bush is bequeathing his successor a world of troubles in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan. The next president will also have to deal with a resurgent and increasingly hostile Russia. We believe that skeptical engagement is the best course. "