There is a split between “old and new Europe” — roughly Western and Eastern Europe, said Clifford Kupchan, a director of the Eurasia Group. New Europe, backed by Britain and Scandinavia, is taking a harder line toward Russia, while old Europe “will only be reinforced in its view that Georgia and Ukraine are not ready for NATO.”

A ceasefire continued to hold and President Dmitry Medvedev assured his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy that Russian regular forces “from tomorrow … will begin withdrawing,” the Kremlin said. However, new tensions gathered over Russia’s longer term military plans in the fervently pro-Western ex-Soviet republic.