Many More Potential Flashpoints Fester Along Russia's Borders

Grouped together, there are 10 separate pockets of frozen conflicts straddling both sides of the Russian border in the Caucuses. But the Russian campaign to maintain external influence stretches far beyond the troubled network of clans and tribes of the Caucasian mountains.

Along with South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia, there is Crimea in the Ukraine, Transdniester in Moldova, Narva in Estonia, and eastern areas of Latvia.
—Telegraph

Russian Invasion Pushes Past Disputed Territory into Heart of Georgia

Russia expanded its attacks on Georgia on Sunday, moving tanks and troops through the separatist enclave of South Ossetia and advancing toward the city of Gori in central Georgia, in its first direct assault on a Georgian city with ground forces during three days of heavy fighting, Georgian officials said.

The maneuver — along with bombing of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi — seemed to suggest that Russia’s aims in the conflict had gone beyond securing the pro-Russian enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to weakening the armed forces of Georgia, a former Soviet republic and an ally of the United States whose Western leanings have long irritated the Kremlin.
—New York Times

Blood in the Caucasus: Why is it Happening?

Political map of Georgia, with recognized boundaries.




Map of ethnic groups in Georgia and its environs.

You can see why there is so much trouble. Boundaries do not match the reality on the ground. There are so many ethnic groups in the region that this situation has the potential to turn into an epic disaster.
Click on the map to enlarge.

Georgia: Breakaway Abkhazia Region Now Under Russian Control

The pro-Western Georgian government of Mikheil Saakashvili has said it is determined to bring the breakaway region back under its control, while accusing Russia of trying to annex the breakaway republic, along with another rebel province, South Ossetia.
—Russian News & Information Agency