A commendable line of questions from the BBC. I could see an American network news anchor squandering this interview. Dmitry Medvedev's answers are straightforward enough that this worth watching.

The BBC interviewer asks some straight-forward, hard questions to the Russian President Medvedev. To his credit, he doesn't dance around these questions too much.

The six minute video clip of BBC interview of Medvedev is well worth watching. The Russian president also has a piece in tiday's Financial Times on the same topic, and well worth reading. The Russian president says his country is not seeking confrontation with the West, and that the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is in the nature of a humanitarian effort to protect the people of both areas (now countries in their own right, according to Russia).

Excellent evocative interview. Scary, of course. Medvedev is jammed into the corner by the fools in military establishment, of course. Congratulations once more to the BBC, for asking the hard questions, even when the answers are deflective!