While there's a lull in the Limey/Septic slanging match, it might be useful to consider what Ivan's done in the recent past and how he's done it.
http://www.conflictstudies.org.uk/files/rp_74.pdf "Who Gives The Orders in The New Russian Military?" makes interesting reading. I can't copy and paste as the PDF is "protected". Also, if we assume that the Russians methods are still tic toc by nature,
http://www.conflictstudies.org.uk/files/04.pdf "Provocation, Deception, Entrapment: the Russo-Georgian Five Day War" is informative. Regrettably, the ARAG doesn't do executive summaries.