Wrong. The proper translation is that the US has told Saudi Arabia that they better clean up thier act and hold elections or the hardware spiggot will be closed tight!
Net effect is the same, they are looking for alternatives - and to some degree, they are probably pretending to look so as to worry the US.
I doubt GWB gives a rip.
Not necessarily so!!The Saudis are more or less following a trend which is seen around the world.The UAE,Kuwait,Greece,South Korea have all brought various Russian systems in the past decades while still remaining major American customers.The UAE had no problem in buying the BMP-3 IFV & Pantysr SAM systems ,while still going for over 80 F-16s & Apaches from Uncle Sam.It pays to not put all your eggs in one big basket.Besides,I have yet to see about the US saying anything solid on stopping armssales to the region.You can do a check on FR's searchpage on the US offering PAC-3 missiles,M1 & E-3 upgrade packages to the Saudis.
Moreover Russia has usually avoided sales to the Persian Gulf states till recently due to their support for Chechen & (ex)Yugoslavian separatists.But with India looking at French & Israeli weapon systems & the EU due to lift it's armsban on China,the Russian share of these markets will only come down.