You cannot be from the former Soviet Union, or claim familiarity with the region, and not know the 1977 comedy film Mimino and its signature tune, Chito-Gvrito.

A truck plowed into a bus stop on Tbilisi’s main prospect just outside the handsome, cake-like Opera House, in a cacophony of explosions and gunshots. A massive, armored tractor-trailer followed, cars and a helicopter in hot pursuit.

Another Georgian village has been divided by Russian troops in their campaign to wall off the breakaway region of South Ossetia from the rest of Georgia.

This week Gugutiantkari became the latest victim of what Georgians call “creeping occupation.”

The Rustavi2 news channel, an embattled bastion of government criticism, went up for sale on August 12. Its newest owner put the station on the block just weeks after reclaiming it through a years-long legal battle and amid concerns the government is trying to gag the critical broadcaster.    

As Moscow brainstorms ways to get back at its nettlesome neighbor, Georgia, some Russian politicians have proposed hitting where it hurts most: khachapuri, the iconic Georgian cheese pie.

July 8 was a busy day for Levan Vasadze, a homophobic Georgian knight. Gay Pride was coming to Georgia for the first time, and he had made it his life’s goal never to let that happen.

A popular Georgian talk-show host’s elaborate, obscene diatribe on live TV against Russian President Vladimir Putin sparked a national furor and fears of retaliation from Moscow, as well as worries about an overreaction from the Georgian government itself.   

Thus far, the ongoing dispute between Tbilisi and Moscow has been a war of words – Moscow is calling Georgia rude and Tbilisi labelling Russia an “occupier” – and a war on tourism, as the Kremlin has banned flights to Georgia and declared the country unsafe for Russian tourists.

But with some ominous remarks by a senior Russian diplomat, some Georgians now worry about the prospect of a real war.

Angry Georgians now have a political party committed to representing their core emotion in the public sphere. “Our ambition is to create a large movement of a lot of angry people,” said Irakli Okruashvili, a controversial former government minister, as he announced the establishment of a new political party, Victorious Georgia.

June 9 was a big day for small South Ossetia: It won a soccer European Cup of sorts and elected a new parliament, though both accomplishments occurred in the parallel world of unrecognized states.