They've been threatening to do it since the election, the Apartheid government simply refuses to accept the fact that a black man won the election. They've been saying that unless he "steps down, and returns the office to the white race it was stolen from" they'd break off ties, and today they did. The Soviets haven't commented on it yet, but I know that this is going to cause some problems. After all, how are they going to keep the war going if our main ally on the continent has broken off relations? Personally I'm kind of glad this happened. I mean it draws attention to the fact that we've allied ourselves with a psychotic nation, and with a little luck it will mean our troops can come home a little sooner.