I was in Georgia as a
stringer for The Times (London)
when the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict first erupted at the end of 1990, in
the context of the gathering decay of the Soviet Union.
I must say that I never could have imagined then that this obscure dispute
would one day hold the potential for creating a major international crisis.
This conflict has its roots in three factors: First is the desire of the
Southern Ossetes, who up until 1990 formed an autonomous region of the Georgian
Soviet… more
