It’s getting harder to attach much meaning to G8 theatrics. After George Bush and Dmitry Medvedev did their smiles for the cameras, it’s been one hot button after another in the US-Russia relationship. Condi Rice in Europe first to confirm the deal on an anti Photoshopped Iranian missile radar system in the Czech Republic and then on to Tblisi with very sympathetic noises to the Georgians over the tension with Russia via Abkhazia. And today the White House announces —
The President will welcome President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci of the Republic of Kosovo to the White House on July 21, 2008. The President looks forward to meeting with President Sejdiu and Prime Minister Thaci during their first visit to the United States as leaders of an independent Kosovo.
Leaving no doubt about the US willingness to pursue the implications of their recognition of Kosovo.  At what point do US-Russia relations head more in the direction of UK-Russia relations, where the ill-feeling is much more explicit?
If the Iranian Revolutionary Photoshoppers really wanted to make the salvo look more menacing they’d have flipped the image around the vertical axis.