Apropos of Lermontov

As you may have realised while reading A Hero of our Time, most of the action in the first section takes place in the now heavily contested borders of “independent” (at least according to Russia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela) South Ossetia.  With winter coming on, and most of the mountainous passes becoming impassable, it looked as though this conflict would remain frozen (pardon the pun) at least until summer.

But now, the head of the Russian spy service has come out claiming that the Georgian military may be planning on retaking South Ossetia by force.  This, in addition to the charges leveled by top member of the Russian government that Georgian is in league with Al-Qaeda, does not bode well for the coming months.  Are we witnessing the build up of rhetorical justification for renewed conflict?