Say what you will about Vladimir Putin, the man certainly has chutzpah. As his forces drove further into Georgia yesterday across the border from the province of South Ossetia, the Russian Prime Minister lashed out at the US for helping Tbilisi in the escalating war.

In a speech to Russian officials Mr Putin condemned the US for facilitating the emergency transfer home of some of Georgia’s 2000 troops serving alongside Americans in Iraq.

"It is a shame that some of our partners are not helping us but, essentially, are hindering us," Mr Putin said.

For Georgians, the accusation that the US was assisting them in their struggle must have added cruel insult to mounting injury. Despite years of efforts by Mikheil Saakashvili to cement relations between his country and the distant Superpower, despite Georgia’s strenuous moves to push for Nato membership, and despite the courageous efforts of Georgian forces in supporting the US invasion of Iraq, the sum total of actual American assistance to the beleaguered former Soviet state in the last few days has amounted to a few verbal protests against the Russian action.

Vladimir Putin's mastery checkmates the West

Michael Binyon says Russia has been biding its time - but its victory in Georgia has been brutal and brilliant

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BACKGROUND

• Hellraising for the rich: how Osborne met Rothschild

• Oleg Deripaska - oligarch at centre of storm

Last night President Bush stepped up the rhetoric in remarks from the Rose Garden at the White House. But it's not really clear what more, beyond words, the US can do.

It is not going to risk a full scale military or even diplomatic confrontation with an increasingly assertive Moscow over the fate of a province in the Caucasus most of whose 70,000 inhabitants would prefer to be under Russian sovereignty anyway. And while there is real dismay in Washington about the bold Russian actions of the last few days there is also a sense of irritation, even among some of Georgia’s friends, that Mr Saakashvili may have brought some of this mess on himself by deliberately provocative actions in South Ossetia, perhaps in part to test the strength of US resolve.

More importantly, the crisis underscores a deep ambivalence within the US foreign policy establishment in its relations with Moscow, one that is reflected in the election campaign to succeed President Bush. It is an ambivalence that Russia’s latest aggressive action might finally force to a resolution.

Though the US has developed a good working relationship with Mr Saakashvili, simple realpolitik has also demanded that it maintain a good relationship – despite proliferating provocations – with Moscow. Much of the effort to stay friends with Russia has stemmed directly from Mr Bush himself. The president famously declared at his first meeting with Mr Putin in June 2001, that he had “looked the man in the eye” and got a “sense of his soul.”

But even those in the administration who don’t share Mr Bush’s own sense of spiritual communion with the Russian leader know that good relations with Moscow are not an optional extra for Washington.

Rising energy prices have bolstered Russia’s clout in Europe and around the world. What’s more, with the much bigger global knots the US is strenuously trying to unravel, Russia has proved useful. Mr Bush rarely fails to praise Russia for its apparent efforts to defuse the dispute over Iranian nuclear capability by offering to provide nuclear reprocessing for Teheran. Condoleezza Rice, the fluent Russian-speaking secretary of state, has worked hard to keep Russia from directly undermining US diplomatic efforts elsewhere.

At the same time, and especially for some of the hardliners in the administration, there is a growing sense that, given the course Russia has taken under Mr Putin – both with regard to domestic critics and with its neighbours, continuing accommodation with Moscow will be impossible.

These people have been warning that the US has risked appeasing Russia’s escalating bullying of its neighbours – Ukraine, as well as Georgia – and that it was time for the US to get tougher.

It was striking that on Sunday, the often secretive Vice-President Cheney let it be known that he had spoken with Mr Saakashvili and had said Russian aggression “must not go unanswered”

It was Mr Cheney who caused a mini diplomatic incident two years ago when he travelled to Lithuania to a conference of east European leaders critical of Russia and accused Mr Putin of undermining democracy.

It’s unclear whether Mr Cheney will be able to deliver much on his promise to Mr Saakashvili but it is at least likely that Russia’s actions in Georgia will strengthen their hand

Much more important, however, given that Mr Bush and Mr Cheney have only five more months left in office, is what the next administration does. Here the difference among US foreign policy thinkers is out in the open.

If John McCain is elected, it is highly likely that the US will take a much more aggressive line with Russia. Sen McCain has always been highly critical of Mr Putin, even suggesting Russia should be expelled from the G8. Among his most senior campaign staff have been some of Russia’s fiercest US critics, including Randy Scheunemann, his chief foreign policy adviser, who has worked in Washington over the last few years on behalf of some of the former Soviet states who have been most intimidated by Russia.

Yesterday Mr McCain launched his most aggressive verbal assault yet on Moscow, calling for the US to offer humanitarian assistance to Georgia and saying Moscow should be brought before the “court of world public opinion”.

Campaign advisers clearly feel that Mr McCain is seizing the moment to display his tough national security credentials in a way that will shift US voters behind him.

Barack Obama meanwhile has been steadily upping his rhetoric after a rather cautious initial response last week. In an election campaign that could hinge on whether or not the Democrat is ready to take on the national security obligations of the presidency it's evident that Sen Obama is trying to demonstrate he can be as tough with the Russian Bear.

US relations with Russia seem to have deteriorated rapidly this week. The really important question may be whether the US can bring Europe along with it.

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