This is a blog for use in both of my HIS 241 and HIS 242 Russian history survey courses at Northern Virginia Community College.

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12 August 2008

Conflict in the Caucasus

In the news this week, during the so-called Olympic truce," fighting has broken out in the Caucasus between Russia and Georgia over control of South Ossetia, a region whose control has been in dispute for some time now.

2 comments :

Anonymous said...

Control of the region may be in dispute but aren't South Osettia and Abkhazia recognized as part of Georgia by all international organizations? Suppose we encourage Wales to break away from Great Britain and give the citizens of Wales U.S. passports?

Igor said...

I don't follow this dispute closely because I think that it is pointless (I've used the G-rated adjective there) and will only lead to more trouble. It is clear that the Russians have a quite different view of these areas and would like them to be again part of the brotherhood of peoples looked after by the Russians, and since the Russians didn't like what happened to Kossovo, they are using that model for their actions now. This jockeying between Russia, Georgia (and the US) only ends up destroying the lives of the people Georgians, Russians, Ossetians, Abkahzians, Inguish, etc who actually live there.