The territory’s outgoing leader says the vote will take place in July. But he’ll be out of office by then and neither his successor, nor Russia itself, appear as interested in it as he is.
Many outsiders have been calling on Georgia to take advantage of Russian weakness to reclaim its lost territories. But Georgians themselves aren’t having it.
While Anatoliy Bibilov tried to boost his electoral chances by tying himself more tightly to Russia, analysts say his defeat will still not likely result in any substantial change in relations with Moscow.
The incumbent has come under fire for a controversial military deployment to Ukraine, and it’s not clear that a proposal to annex the territory to Russia will help him.
It’s not the first time the breakaway Georgian territory’s de facto authorities have signaled the intention. In the past Russia has blown the calls off, but its calculations may be different now.
Every country in the region has its own relationship with self-proclaimed breakaway republics, forcing them to reckon in their own ways with Russia’s moves in Ukraine.
Russia usually stays out of the Caucasus information wars, but the crisis in Ukraine is re-igniting disputes over who is to blame for Georgia’s frozen conflicts.
With an art school and international animation festival, a Georgian Orthodox bishop is trying to revive a village on the de facto border with South Ossetia.
The move, ahead of commemorations of the 75th anniversary of victory in World War II, comes after similar decisions in the Russian-backed breakaway areas of Eastern Ukraine.
Local families rushed to move belongings out of their farmsteads, as masked Russian soldiers began fencing off their property from the rest of Georgia.
