U.S. Has Little to Back Up Tough Talk With Russia

"This isn't 1968," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told ABC News' Charlie Gibson on Aug. 12, referring to the year the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia. "The Soviet Union, didn't care about its international reputation because it wasn't attempting to integrate into international organizations; it wasn't attempting to be a part of the prosperous and forward-looking Europe."

"Those aspirations for integration into the international community, for continued respect and viability in a lot of these international institutions, that's very much at stake," Rice said.

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Experts argue, however, that such steps are either unlikely, in the case of the G8, or ineffective threats, in the case of the WTO and OECD.

"WTO membership is already de facto blocked," Simes said. "You cannot punish someone by depriving them of things they know they will not get anyway."

Any economic or trade sanctions placed on Moscow could result in a Russian retaliation, and experts argue Europe has more to fear from a Russian economic retaliation. It depends heavily on Russia for oil and gas imports and Moscow has shown in the past it is willing to turn off the spigot for political reasons.

"We aren't in a position to take economic or other measures to force the Kremlin to do something," Collins said.

"You can make a list of things you can take away from Russia," said Simes. "But you have to create a second list of what they will do in response."

What about going after Russian state-owned gas stations in the United States? Simes points out that Exxon-Mobil has invested more in Russia.

And what about freezing the foreign assets of the Russian elite? "Every American businessman in Moscow would become a target," Simes says.

One option, experts agree, is not an option: a direct U.S. military response.

"We aren't going to get into a military confrontation with Russia," Collins said.

After avoiding a fight with Russian troops for nearly half a century during the Cold War, Washington has been careful not to provoke Russia militarily during the conflict in Georgia.