Putin was much more irked by the fact that the Russian attack caused Poland to end a year of indecision and sign an agreement with the U.S. administration to place on its soil an American missile defense base. In addition, the Ukrainian government announced its desire to cooperate with the West on defense against ballistic missiles, and that it intends to limit the actions in its territory of the Russian fleet. These announcements show a harder line by Ukraine, whose president, Viktor Yushchenko, had earlier preferred not to goad Putin too much. Senior Georgian government officials said over the weekend that they believed Putin’s mistake was in ordering his forces to go beyond South Ossetia deep into Georgian territory. If the tanks had stayed in South Ossetia, they say, the other countries in the area would not have been so determined to demonstrate their independence. Russia’s move beyond Gori came after Putin returned from the opening of the Olympics in Beijing; it seems Putin assumed from the lack of protest he sensed on the part of leaders of other countries that he could do anything he wanted in Georgia. The reports coming out of Moscow over the past few days of disagreements between Putin and his successor Dmitri Medvedev may attest that even the new president fears that Putin has gone one step too far.