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IN FOCUSTbilisi’s military confrontation with Russia in August 2008 ended in Moscow recognising the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. FT correspondents look at the Caucasus region a year after the conflictFrom the archives: South Ossetia conflict | ![]() |
Comment
Putin has misread his Georgian lesson
The Russian PM is an excellent short-term tactician, but a rotten strategist. He has no clear vision for the longer-term future of the Caucasus, nor for how to build good relations with his neighbours
The west must not abandon Georgia again
Do western countries still believe in the core principles of European security laid out in the Charter of Paris and are they willing to defend them, asks Ronald Asmus
Tbilisi looks like winning the peace
Georgia may have seen its pride sorely dented, but the economy has held up much better. American and European aid has flooded in, writes Quentin Peel
News and analysis
Georgia fired first shots in war – report
A long-awaited official report into last year’s Russia-Georgia war concludes that Tbilisi fired the first shots but Moscow helped provoke the conflict
Georgia braced for war report
Georgia is braced for a European Union-sanctioned report on the causes of the August 2008 war with Russia that could further undermine its claims that its forces invaded South Ossetia in response to a Russian assault
Abkhazia threatens to attack Georgian ships
Abkhazia would not seek Russian assistance when tackling Georgian ships found to be breaching its marine border, despite Moscow’s pledge of assistance last week
Medvedev calls for Georgia arms ban
The Russian president stepped up pressure on Mikheil Saakashvili at the weekend, saying the Georgian leader would be punished for the war over South Ossetia and Abkhazia last year
Georgia recovers as rebel regions suffer
Ceremonies were held on Friday on both sides of the line that separates Georgia from South Ossetia, its separatist region, to mark the first anniversary of the Georgia-Russia war
Investors sense fresh chances in Georgia
Last year’s war and the global financial meltdown, followed by political unrest, have shocked investors and damaged confidence – but not irreparably
Georgia’s PM defends economic policy
Georgia will stand by its liberal economic policy despite a recession that has stoked popular discontent since the disastrous war with Russia last August
Russia raises combat readiness in South Ossetia
Moscow has warned the US not to rearm Tbilisi in the tense run-up to the first anniversary of the war between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region
Analysis: A harder power
The Caucasus: as the first anniversary of its war with Georgia nears, Russia has been able to shrug off diplomatic damage, leaving its enemy humbled and others chastened
US vows to stand by Georgia
Joe Biden, US vice-president, received a rapturous welcome in Georgia where he pledged continuing support for Washington’s troubled ally in the Caucasus
Editorial Comment: Triangulation in the Caucasus
US vice-president Joe Biden must make it clear that America’s support for Georgia does not mean carte blanche for its president to ride roughshod over any opposition
Georgia launches ‘new wave of democracy’
President seeks to bolster the country as it approaches the anniversary of the disastrous war with Russia in which it lost control of a fifth of its territory
Isolation pushing Abkhazia into Russia’s arms
Georgia’s separatist region of Abkhazia has urged the west to recognise its independence and warned that international isolation could push it further into the arms of Russia
Who will use the G-word: Georgia?
The pending Obama-Medvedev summit is being billed in Russia as an event on a par with the Reagan-Gorbachev meeting at the end of the cold war, writes Quentin Peel
Russian veto drives observer force from Georgia
The UN has suspended its military observers in Georgia after Russia vetoed the extension of its 16-year-old mission of monitoring a ceasefire between Tbilisi and breakaway Abkhazia





