Europe’s forgotten war : The Georgia-Russia conflict explained a decade on | Euronews
▻http://www.euronews.com/2018/08/07/europe-s-forgotten-war-the-georgia-russia-conflict-explained-a-decade-on
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https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/03/25/60/46/1000x563_cmsv2_2692420f-11a6-5106-9eb8-f9118d1e55fc-3256046.jpg Moscow’s annexation of Crimea may have been prevented if Europe and others had ‘reacted adequately’ to Russia’s war with Georgia a decade ago, it’s been claimed.
Expert George Mchedlishvili told Euronews that by forgiving Russia, the west had emboldened it ahead of the conflict in Ukraine.
#géorgie #ossétie #russie #ossétie_du_sud
The deadly five-day conflict, fought over Georgia’s separatist regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia, erupted on the night of August 7-8, 2008.
Here we explain the roots of the war, the impact it’s had over the last decade and prospects for the future.
What’s the background to the conflict?
South Ossetians were accused of siding with the Kremlin after the Red Army invaded Georgia in the early 1920s.
As a result, it ended up as an autonomous region within Soviet Georgia, with North Ossetia, on the other side of the Caucasus Mountains, part of Russia.
Fast forward to the early 1990s, when the break-up of the Soviet Union saw Georgia gain independence from Moscow.
The subsequent coming to power of Georgian nationalist Zviad Gamsakhurdia helped stoke separatist sentiment in South Ossetia and after flashes of violence it claimed independence from Georgia in 1992.
Others say powerful figures within the Russian military, annoyed at the breakup of the Soviet Union, encouraged South Ossetians to rise-up in order to weaken Georgia and get revenge for its departure.