It seems that if Russia wanted to do something dramatic about Georgia, now would be the perfect time, given that Barack Obama’s options may be more constrained now than in the future and Mikheil Saakashvili is on political death watch.  Whether or not that is what is happening right now with the rebellion of a tank battalion (on the eve of exercises with NATO) is still unknown.  From the Financial Times:

Russia’s interest in seeing Mr Saakashvili leave power is clear, although Russian officials on Tuesday rushed to deny Kremlin involvement in the uprising, which Georgia has said is a Moscow financed coup attempt.

Mr Klimov called the action a “show” made for western consumption, which would help Georgia’s president Mikheil Saakashvili distract Georgians from the opposition demonstrations. “This is one of Saakashvili’s tricks, he is a master of such shows” he said. “Honestly I’ve been called by colleagues in the Kremlin, they are just as surprised as I am. This is not us doing it. We are out of this, so to speak” he said.

But Alexander Rondeli, the head of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies in Tbilisi, said it was possible that the uprising was at least partly inspired from Moscow:”Russia is not just sitting on its hands and watching our country,” he said, adding that the public needed more proof about events surrounding the mutiny.