Posted By:  zephyr Posted On:  Aug 27, 2008	How Russia Clobbered Georgia and Lost the War
(Prof. Piotr Dutkiewicz for RIA Novosti) - Some critics have pointed to the conflict in Georgia as another example of botched Bush administration foreign policy, but in fact America's real strategy was brilliantly executed and it achieved exactly the intended outcome. Unfortunately it's not an...... [view]

Posted By:  zephyr Posted On:  Aug 26, 2008	NATO – the paper alliance
(John Laughland for RIA Novosti) - As the dust settles on the conflict in South Ossetia - and as it vanishes progressively from the headlines in the Western press - one thing has become overwhelmingly clear. It is that Georgia will now never join NATO and that the balance of power in the world...... [view]

Posted By:  zephyr Posted On:  Aug 17, 2008	Background to conflict: independent streak of breakaway republics
Both South Ossetia and Abkhazia fought wars of independence with Georgia in the early 90s - and won de facto sovereignty. But the roots of the conflict between Georgia and its breakaway regions can be traced back much further. Both breakaway republics are striving for a future that is...... [view]

Posted By:  zephyr Posted On:  Aug 16, 2008	Chronicle of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict: Fact sheet
In the Soviet times South Ossetia was an autonomous area within Georgia. In 1991 Georgia's first president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, abolished the autonomy. The South Ossetian authorities rejected that decision and put up an armed resistance to the Georgians. In January 1991 open warfare broke...... [view]