The following has been submitted to Blogactiv by Bruce Talley. 2008 Events The August 2008 conflict in South Ossetia was the first time that many in the West were aware of either South Ossetia or Abkhazia. Both regions fought bloody wars of independence with Georgia in the aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union. [...]

Tiny Georgia has become the front line in West-Russia tensions for the past month. It began at the NATO Bucharest Summit in early April, when NATO members rebuked immediate progress toward full NATO membership for Georgia, due largely to protests from Russia – while nonetheless promising future membership. In the month since Bucharest, Russia-Georgia relations [...]