Putin's Invasion of Georgia in 2008 - A Case Study

Putin worked out that the West's will to engage in another long-term conflict like Iraq would be destroyed. He decided to chance his arm and he made quite a small intervention in Georgia in 2008, to which there was almost no reaction. Putin probably took from that that actually he could now pursue a more risky strategy and the West was in no mood to get in his way. The significance of Putin's incursion into Georgia seems clear, but that wasn't the case for Western governments at the time.