American oil companies are also involved with energy development projects in neighboring Azerbaijan, which is now considered one of the most important oil development regions in the world because of its rights to shares of the wealth of the Caspian Sea. Baku is also home to the eastern terminus of the freshly underway Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that travels to the Mediterranean via Georgia and Turkey.

Moscow really desires a moderate amount of instability in the Southern Caucasus to scare off Western influence, business, and aid. This instability then also acts as a pretext for military action in the context of the new "rules" created by the "war on terrorism." Putin has appealed to this logic already several times in the past few weeks - of preemptive strikes and striking enemies no matter where they are (even if they're in another country called Georgia). He's even invoked U.N. resolutions as the justification for not only the war in Chechnya but for theoretical interventions in Georgia.

Putin has attempted to paint the conflict concerning Pankisi Gorge as such: Georgia can't handle the lawlessness of the Chechen guerrillas who are terrorizing Russia, so Russia can invade Georgia and do what they want militarily.