Sky News reports:
18 years ago Russia invaded Georgia - Eastern Europe fears a repeat today
Today is the 18th anniversary of Russia's invasion of Georgia.
On 7 August, 2008, Moscow sent in troops, occupying the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Vladimir Putin's forces remain there today, as Eastern Europe fears that Russia may repeat its actions.
As we reported in our 11:01 post, US intelligence believes that Russia could test NATO's resolve in the next few years, with there having long been fears Russia might expand its aggression beyond Ukraine.
In a statement today marking the anniversary, the foreign ministries of Britain, France, Germany and Italy condemned what they described as "the grave consequences of Russian imperialism".
The question is why did Russia invade Georgia and the answer is that it obviously had nothing to do with imperialism as Georgia remains an independent country today and more orientated towards the West.
Georgia Today (GT) briefly explains its view of the conflict here:
https://georgiatoday.ge/remembering-the-august-2008-russia-georgia-war/
And if it was Russian imperialism behind the 5-day war then it did not end well for Russia as GT explains:
The aftermath of the war reshaped Georgia’s foreign policy. The conflict reinforced the country’s drive towards closer ties with the European Union and NATO, while leaving unresolved security issues along the occupation lines. Reports of detentions, restrictions on movement, and the expansion of fences and barriers around the occupied territories continue to be a source of tension.
Georgia has since become another pawn in the EU/NATO strategy of encirclement of Russia.
This strategy does not really care about Georgia (or Ukraine for that matter).
All this strategy cares about is absorbing as many Russian border states as possible into NATO so the next Russian SMO can trigger Article 5 and justify an all-out European war that can be expected to go nuclear rather quickly.
As a result, a lot of people will die but the intended outcome is clear: For the EU/NATO to get their hands on Russian resources and great a giant land buffer state against China.
The whole 'territorial integrity' argument has been null and void since NATO member Turkey invaded and occupied Northern Cyprus in 1974.
Territorial intergity has been ignored in various illegal and 'war of choice' wars since then in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iran
It remains null and void today as proven by recent the US intervention in Venezuela when the elected president was deposed and kidnapped.