Since the break-up of the Soviet Union three unresolved conflicts have undermined stability in the South Caucasus in the end of the 20th century. Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia and Abkhazia stood up to fight for their self-determination. After the long years of war all three entities got de facto independence, while de jure they are still recognized as part of Georgia and Azerbaijan. Neither of them is considered a legal statehood.
South Caucasus is a multiethnic region in nature with contentious borders dividing interrelated ethnic groups. This region, with different ethnic and linguistic groups, faced newly unleashed forces of destruction that Soviet totalitarianism once contained. It remained a region where the implications of sudden independence and titular nationalities’ realization of ethnic identities ensured the onset of severe ethnic strife, enforced migration, economic deprivation and widespread unemployment. Hence, it is no wonder that its transition from Soviet rule to independence has resulted in the eruption in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts that have already claimed hundreds of thousand lives and created more than five million refugees across Eurasia. + Since becoming president in May 2004, Mikheil Saakashvili has made restoration of Georgia’s territorial integrity his main priority. While he has promoted various peace plans, he has not done enough to build confidence with the Ossetians and Abkhazians, lift their isolation and help them gain a sense of security.
In August 2008, Georgian government made a decision to regain control over the area but received a strong resistance from Russian armed forces. Russia - a staunch ally of South Ossetia's separatists – made a military intervention to Tskhinvali and defeated a Georgian incursion into South Ossetia in a “Five-day war”.
Days later, Russia announced it was formally recognizing both South Ossetia and Abkhazia. West protested against the Russian intervention and criticized it for sending troops beyond the sovereign republic's boundaries.
