2008 Caucasus Blog Review
But if events in Armenia set shock waves through the international community regarding the state of democracy and stability in the South Caucasus, what happened towards the end of the summer put the region, and Georgia in particular, on the front pages of every newspaper in the world. Although bloggers had speculated in May that war with Russia might break out over the breakaway region of Abkhazia, few expected fighting to occur in another disputed territory at the beginning of August.
After a failed attempt by Georgia to retake South Ossetia by force, Russia invaded and the blogosphere soon provided the most diverse views and opinions on the conflict between Moscow and its former satellite. The New York Times reproduced posts from Global Voices Online on its own blog and, including voices from Georgia, South Ossetia and Russia as well as elsewhere, syndicated our extensive special coverage of the war.
On August 8, 2008 while the 2008 Beijing Olympics were officially being inaugurated, fighting intensified between the Georgian and Russian military on the outskirts of Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Earlier in the week, Georgia and the South Ossetian separatist government had concluded a truce after an outbreak of fighting for which each side blamed the other. The conflict has now escalated into war, with Russian forces bombing Georgia, and many dead.
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