LONDON, England (CNN) -- It was against the terms of the Russia/Georgia cease-fire, brokered by France's President Nicolas Sarkozy. It was directly in contravention of the request not to do it from President George W. Bush of the United States. But Russia's President Dimitri Medvedev has gone and done it anyway. He has made Russia the first country to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.



Russian President Dmitri Medvedev says it has recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.



So does that, as some of the more fevered commentators are suggesting, amount to a new Cold War? It certainly ratchets up the East-West tension still further. It breaks the terms of a cease-fire which insisted Georgia's territorial integrity should be respected. Russia's announcement that it will station troops in the two territories to ensure their "security", a word others might spell as "subservience", is a direct provocation.



It is, says Georgia, an illegal "annexation". Other European nations have hastened to condemn it as an unacceptable rewriting of borders by force. What do you think of Russian recognition?



U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, currently in the Middle East, points out that it is in contravention of U.N. Security Council resolutions that the Russians have accepted. Sarkozy has called a meeting of EU leaders for Monday to look at Georgia and at future relations with Russia.



But before we start talking about a new Cold War -- and Western leaders from Bush down are being careful not to do so-- we should examine the context.



After the military action initiated by Georgia early in August, there never was a chance that South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which have in effect been independent since the early 1990s, would return to control by Tblisi. Applying a blowtorch isn't necessarily the best way of settling what had become known as "frozen conflicts". Russia has long been in a position to bully and has now been given the excuse to do so.



For years the two disputed territories have survived on Russian military and economic assistance. Although Abkhazia seeks fuller independence, a large number of South Ossetians, perhaps 70 or 80 per cent of them, have Russian passports and would vote for membership of the Russian Federation. Both disputed territories use the rouble.



But this isn't, and never has been, just about Georgia. It is about the reassertion of regional power by a country which had smarted for years over the collapse of the Soviet Union and the eastward march of NATO, swallowing up former members of the Warsaw Pact.



What we are seeing is a resurgent Russia currently prepared to strut the beach kicking sand in everybody's eyes and defying any affronted party to take them on.



When NATO leaders met in the wake of the invasion of Georgia and came up with nothing more concrete than the "suspension of normal relations", the weakness of a divided West was all too obvious to Putin and Medvedev. They have now taken the next step down the line of provocation. "Scrap the NATO-Russia Council altogether and see if we care!" is the message.



And, playing as the back-beat sub-theme through all this is the question of Kosovo, a question which looks very different according to whether you are seated in Moscow, Belgrade, Brussels or Washington.



"If it was right for the Kosovar Albanians to be given the right to declare independence from Serbia, then why shouldn't the people of South Ossetia be allowed to choose separation from Tblisi?" demand the Medvedev-Putin supporters in the Russian Parliament.



"Ah yes," some say, "but what about those threats from Moscow to turn Russian missiles against Poland now that the Poles have agreed to host the anti-missile batteries for the US missile defense plan? Isn't that a dangerous new escalation?"



Again, it depends where you are sitting.



"How would Washington like it if the Russians were to stage anti-missile batteries in Mexico?" is Moscow's answer.



What seems to be forgotten amid the current rhetorical battle is
Who opposes the decision? President signs order recognizing what? What Russian President signed an order ? The Russian president signed the order recognizing independence of which territories?
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Dimitri Medvedev South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
question: Who opposes the decision?, answer: Russian President Dmitri Medvedev | question: President signs order recognizing what?, answer: independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. | question: What Russian President signed an order ?, answer: Dimitri Medvedev | question: The Russian president signed the order recognizing independence of which territories?, answer: South Ossetia and Abkhazia.