No sooner had China launched its Olympics with a thunder of fireworks and flurry of synchronised hand-waving, than the swarthy Russians steel their thunder with this terrifying piece of sabre-rattling against Georgia. Mr Putin has declared: ‘war has started’. He is in Beijing as we speak, every inch the steely leader. Perhaps he will bare his muscles for the games themselves – he is something of a judo master, after all.
The human tragedy aside, Russia is set to host the Winter Olympic Games in 2014 – in a place called Sochi, billed as ‘Gateway To The Future’. Sochi is a coastal resort near Russia’s southern border, which Georgia lies just below. What kind of future, exactly?
News hour, with Jerry Caesar 
