Georgia resurrected an international racial discrimination convention from the 1960s on Monday to take Russia to a United Nations court in The Hague over its invasion of South Ossetia – accusing Moscow of ethnic cleansing.

If successful, the novel legal move could yield a symbolic victory for Tbilisi, which says it was the victim of Russian aggression in last month’s conflict. But Russia made clear that it would defend itself in the court, which has yet to decide whether it has jurisdiction.