Russia - Georgian Relations Are Still Tense

European Patrols Brace for Rise in Tension Over Report on 2008 War in Georgia -- New York Times

MOSCOW — European Union monitors are stepping up their patrols in Georgia ahead of the release of a much anticipated report on the origins of last year’s war in South Ossetia, in case the report’s conclusions reignite tensions around the breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

There has been heated speculation about the European Union report, which will be presented next Wednesday to the organization’s Council of Ministers in Brussels. Both Russia and Georgia maintain that they bear no responsibility for the war’s outbreak, and each says it hopes that its version of events will be the one that the commission writes into the historic record.

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My Comment: While the fighting may have stopped, the tensions that led to the war are still there. I do not expect this report to change anything, but to only validate each sides claim to what caused the conflict.

The continuing tensions in the Georgian region also reflects the continuing tensions and low level insurgencies that plague the Caucasus. Different ethnic groups have been fighting in this region for centuries. The Russians are trying their best to at least not have an all out conflict in the region .... but as the Georgian war proved last year .... it may be calm today, but tomorrow a full blown war can break out involving thousands of troops and hundreds of thousands of refugees.