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# South Ossetia: war and politics
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/south-ossetia-war-and-politics/
- Published: 2008-08-10T00:08:00.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:59:01.000Z
- Author: Thomas de Waal
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 19:46

The Caucasus is the kind of place where, when the guns start firing,  
it's hard to stop them. That is the brutal reality of South Ossetia,  
where a small conflict is beginning to spread exponentially.

Leave aside the geopolitics for the moment and have pity for the people who  
will suffer most from this, the citizens - mostly ethnic Ossetians but  
also Georgians - who have already died in their hundreds. It is a tiny  
and vulnerable place, with no more than 75,000 inhabitants of both  
nationalities mixed up in a patchwork of villages and one sleepy  
provincial town in the foothills of the Caucasus.

(To read on, click [here.... )](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/10/georgia.russia?ref=opendemocracy.net)