Putin hijacked a summit in Kazakhstan to spread a conspiracy theory, undermining his host’s efforts to get the world to take a grouping of Asian leaders seriously.
In South Ossetia, meanwhile, the authorities have remained completely silent on the issue. Most residents in both territories hold Russian citizenship, raising the prospect they could be drafted.
Georgians and Russians have not had such close contact, and on such a scale, since the breakup of Soviet Union. Now they are figuring each other out again.