Dear President,
I normally don't write such letters, but reading the news lately breaks my heart. The clash between Russia and the US after the five day in Georgia has caused a lot of negative press in the Western world and has had a very negative influence on the perception of Russian intentions and its image in Germany and abroad. It breaks my heart, because it doesn't have to be like this.
But let me start over: There has been lots of propaganda on both sides, on all sides. And exaggerated statements have been made on both sides, too, of course. The main issue here is that although all statements are of equal kind, Russia is in a weaker position due to old Cold War fears and memories in people's heads. This can be seen in the overly panicked coverage by most of the press in Eastern Europe and the public's perception of the conflict. It's natural that Russia has an interest on a positive image in those regions and want to maintain a constructive influence there, too. So the current state of affairs could be called counter-productive.
To sum it up: while the intervention in Georgia was reasonable and justified (to some degree and I'm in no way qualified to assess it in more detail), almost everyone has turned a blind eye on it and rather concentrates on the perceived new danger posed by Russia. With China being forced to be very careful, because of its own internal situation, it's probably adequate to say, that Russia is on the defensive side at the moment.
Moreover, Russia faces sanctions from the European Union and could be barred from some international bodies. This probably wouldn't be a big deal now and in the next years, but in the foreseeable future it might be and the current brawl could close some door and destroy progress and trust that has been hard to accomplish. Especially now that the US has lost a lot of respect and credibility after the war and occupation of Iraq and the continued bad press related to all the torture cases and the general lawlessness of the Bush administration, the world balance has changed and the world is in need of someone to rely on. Russia has been a partner for the European Union and a considerable help with Iran and other issues in the last years and has generated some very positive impressions due to this (I don't even want to start to talk about the economic success and change in your country). Consequently Russia still is in a position that's not really worse than the US, if you look at it. You can still fix it.
The question is, how to repair Russia's image without making concessions and fix the row with the European Union and the US. There have been press releases suggesting, that the US has encouraged the conflict to help one of the Presidential candidates in the US. It's clear, that the current face-off helps McCain, which is bad in general and for Russia's interests, too, because the persons who have an advantage now are the hard-liners who favor a more aggressive stance on Russia. Thus it should be in Russia's interest to help the more moderate politicians then. And the way to help them is clear, too:
In German there is a saying: "The wiser head gives in." Russia doesn't need to give in. It simply could soften its rhetorics and appear wiser than the US and Western governments. By making overstatements you invite criticism. By embracing talks and softening the counter-rhetorics or by simply not commenting on weak reproaches, a lot of the tensions could be eliminated and people would know whom to thank. (Not commenting on some strange allegations is probably better than calling them "ill-fated fantasies", too, because it just heats up everything some more.) There is no reason to keep tensions high, because it just damages Russia's reputation in the eyes of the people here and makes it harder to get the other governments to accept your actions, which is the thing one would want to achieve. (Later on you can still demand concessions, because of the insults that were made now.)
The current war of words just triggers old Cold War fears and these automatically get projected on Russia and not on the US here (and people don't think of the human right violations that exist in the US at the moment and not in Russia).
Russia is very critical of Georgia's current government (I can follow that logic now, I guess), but the best way to change Georgia is not by intimidation, but by embracing it. A politician here put it nicely (only it was targeted at Georgia's president): He asked, why he didn't wait for the economy to improve some more and make the separatist regions want to come back and rejoin Georgia because of the new-found wealth. The same can be applied vice-versa and probably more effectively, because Russia has the wealth and the resources already. Human aids are currently delivered in South Ossetia and Abkhazia - why not help the people in the security zones, too and offer them to Georgia in general, too? Georgia's president would look bad, if he didn't allow for them to be delivered, not Russia. Russia could only win by doing such things.
The war is an issue between states, but civilians are not even pawns in a war and helping them can be seen as independent of anything else. By embracing all of Georgia and investing in it, you could get more influence in Georgia - and doing so more easily and in a more positive way than is currently the case.
I think Russia could gain all of its reputation back and win some more, if it left the path of confrontation first and would try to be the be more consolidate protagonist and would search for dialog more aggressively (and e.g. call for a peace-force in the security zone and Georgia more loudly than anyone else - because Russian citizens and soldiers are still in danger there and shared responsibility is easier to live with).
The recent weeks have seen some unlucky turn of events and focus in the Western world has shifted too fast away from the faults of Georgia's government, but I hope you agree with me, that it is time to be the wiser person and change the international situation for the better.
Greetings, Andreas Kirsch