The war in Georgia, a country in the caucasus region bordering Russia, what is it all about? We’ve seen the news reports now for a few days, but I haven’t heard a reason for it. I decided to google it and try to see if I could find something out.
Between Georgia and Russia there is a region called South Ossetia that broke away from Georgia in a war in 1991-92 (not recognized officially). The population of Ossetia has Russian citizenship, the Ossetians are a distinct ethnic group originating from Iran and some reports say they have been victims of ethnic cleansing for some time by Georgia.
In the beginning of August fighting began between South Ossetian militants and Georgian soldiers, and they both blame eachother for starting it, basically it all escalated from that. Russia is involved in the war since they want to protect their citizens so they are retaliating on Georgia. Everyone has an interest in the region because… yes, you guessed it… pipelines and oil.
South Ossetia is calling out to all governments in the world to recognize their independance and we all hope that the Georgian president will withdraw all troops soon and everyone go back to a status quo. I don’t get what kind of mentality the leaders of these countries have to make them rely on military power so easily, this is a reality that seem so far away from Scandinavia, scary.
Update: Newspaper “Aftonbladet” in Sweden reports that Georgia will withdraw their troops.
