In a commentary published on Foreign Policy Monday, Brian Whitmore argues that Georgia has benefited from Obama’s reset with Russia and is relatively safe now from the threat of another invasion. This is interesting in light of how Medvedev chose to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the Russia-Georgia conflict this weekend: by promising South Ossetia and Abkhazia Russian support and proclaiming that he has no regrets over the confict. Georgia officials quoted in Whitmore’s piece nonetheless say the reset means that the US is in a better position now to exert quiet pressure on Moscow and to make its near abroad safer. Here’s an excerpt:

The fact that Georgians aren’t living in fear of a Russian invasion for the first time in years is an unexpected fringe benefit of U.S. President Barack Obama’s “reset” policy with Moscow. It also runs counter to allegations by Obama’s critics that countries on Russia’s periphery such as Georgia would suffer from Washington’s rapprochement with Moscow. These concerns have not merely been limited to Obama’s partisan rivals: Eastern European luminaries, including former Czech and Polish presidents Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa, as well as domestic critics such as former State Department official David Kramer, have raised concerns that Obama’s Russia policy would leave former Soviet states at Moscow’s mercy.