Having recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russia has now decided to keep troops in those disputed regions (The New York Times - Moscow Will Keep Troops in Georgia Enclaves):

Defense Minister Anatoly E. Serdyukov told Mr. Medvedev during a televised meeting on Tuesday that about 3,800 troops would remain in each breakaway region. Georgian officials estimate that there were about 2,200 Russian troops in each enclave before fighting erupted on Aug. 7.

It's clear that dealing with a newly assertive Russia will be a top priority for the next president. This feature by the Public Broadcasting Service offers a nice overview of the differences between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama on this important topic.

Of course, we won't have a good handle on how to deal with Russia unless we also have a sense of how Russia is evolving. Is Russia in a post-Putin era, or is Putin now moving Russia into a new pre-Czarist period with Putin as the new Czar? The Chronicle of Higher Education recently gathered together some top Russia analysts to ponder this question and their analysis offers an educated guess on the near-term future of Russia that may allow the U.S. to better calibrate our responses.