Solana is on the job

Fine. No need to worry. The mess in the Caucasus - well the one in South Ossetia, anyway, because there are other messy situations in the Caucasus as the word Chechnya might remind everyone - is as good as solved.

An EU diplomatic delegation headed by South Caucasus envoy Peter Semneby and a U.S. team led by Matthew Byrza was heading to the Georgian capital Tblisi, the EU Observer reported. Lithuanian foreign minister Petras Vaitiekunas is also going on a separate, fact-finding mission for the EU, the newspaper said.

EU president France says there have been "multiple contacts" with Russia and Georgia and that it is "in liaison with all the protagonists" to hammer out a ceasefire. The Observer said EU foreign policy chief Javieer Solana has been in touch with the Georgian and Russian foreign ministers as well.

This will undoubtedly make the Russians withdraw and stop attacking Georgia proper, as opposed to invading South Ossetia and Abkhazia. After all, we can ... well, we can .... errm, do nothing and let them get bogged down. Or repeat in South Ossetia the behaviour that was so successful in Chechnya. At least this time the Russians cannot claim that the war against Georgia is part of the war against terror. Just as well. Given the air of appeasement around they would certainly get the support.