Blake Hounshell asks: "Did [Russian President] Medvedev get punk'd?"

A funny thing happened on the way home from the G-8 summit. Somebody seems to have changed Russia's position on U.N. sanctions on Zimbabwe.

Last Tuesday, President Dmitry Medvedev signed on to a statement expressing "grave concern" about the situation in Zimbabwe. But on Friday, Russia vetoed a proposed U.N. sanctions resolution, citing the need to protect the principle of sovereignty.

Blake speculates that Russian Prime Minister Vladamir Putin may have intervened to reverse official Russian position on Zimbabwe. Whatever the case, I too read the tea leaves wrong and appeared sanguine about Russia's position on the United States sponsored sanctions resolution on Zimbabwe when I posted on this last week.