An insightful opinion. I would add, though, that the fate of South Ossetia largely depends on the world's continued interest to it.

If this tiny nation, which had been attacked by Georgia, received at least a fraction of the financial aid provided swiftly by the world to Georgia, if the world cared about why South Ossetia can't live together with Georgia, maybe then the "black hole" hypotheses would have less chance to materialise.

If, however, the world turns its back on these people, on their historic sufferings from a bigger neighbour, South Ossetians can only turn for help to Russia, and this is effectively what they have done after the previous local war in the 1990s.

The world, or rather the "West" chose to ignore South Ossetia with its problems. OSCE has been on the ground for good 15 years and yet failed to prevent another war. We can now blame Russia or Georgia, but Europe is responsible too.

Assuming this responsibility is what Europe should do. The deep roots of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict should be studied, not just the fact who fired first in August 2008. A fair, impartial, balanced approach needs to be employed, not a pro-NATO-loyal-Georgia-support or anti-NATO-Russia-and-their-friends-bashing.

If we all simply forget about South Ossetia now, history will inevitably spin another spiral again and South Ossetia will be attacked by Georgia for the forth time, to mend the humiliated national pride of Georgian rulers and finally force all the remaining stubborn Ossets to run away, georgionize or die. It's just a matter of time.

David, I do not have to get my information from Russia or Georgia. I have lived in South Ossetia and the surviving part of my family, which escaped from being killed, still lives there.

FYI - there has been a sentence for 25 years in GSSR. The name of the man who was sentenced for this term was Laliev. He and the other young people protested about the policies aimed against the Ossetian language.

I do believe that the Georgian government wants to demonstrate how it cares about the minorities in Georgia. However, it also demonstrates how it loves Ossetians by shelling their homes. They did it again. Would you trust someone who killed your people?

I have read the Latynina’s piece. Contrary to her account, there has been a shelling from the Georgian side on the 9th pf August . My family members died from a Georgian shell on the 9th and I will prove it in international court.

Latynina is very smart, she omits the facts that distort her rosy image of the Georgian government. She doesn't say that the Georgian leaders repeatedly threatened that they would take Tskhinvali with force and that they did prepare for the war with Ossetia. She isolates this war from its historical context, presenting it just as reaction of the Georgian government to a Russian provocation, while it is no secreted that this war is rooting from the cowboy approach of Saakashvili to resolving very serious issues and from those issues themselves. Despite the fact the painful memories of “Georgia for Georgians!” policies of Gamsakhurdia and of Shevarnadze’s bombings and the Zar tragedy haven’t yet faded away, Saakashvili promised that he would bring back Ossetia into Georgia while he is president of Georgia. He wanted to get quick results, so he appointed young hawks to his government and they went aggressive on Ossetia in 2004 (when the tortured body of Sanakoev was presented as a Cossack on Georgian TV). Then, there was the 2006 plan to take over Ossetia, which Okruashvili has described recently. This aggressive style was always there, the non-stop harassment, the deprivation of water and electricity, etc.

All these and other aggressive elements of the policy towards Ossetia are missing in Latynina’s analysis, she pictures Saakashvili as a saint who just unwillingly made some mistakes and that the Kremlin is responsible for everything. No, my friend, the Georgian government is responsible for inflicting pain on Ossetia over long period, just because they always wanted the Ossetian land and restore their humiliated pride.

David, I think this debate is pointless. You love your country, I love mine. I wish you peace.

Is it still difficult to admit that you, the west, were wrong? 'A considerable number of the deaths were caused by Georgia's use, in its initial attack on Tskhinvali, of notoriously inaccurate Grad rockets and tanks shells which in some cases were apparently fired directly into residental apartments' but still Russia is an aggressor and started the war?

Mr Whewell, like your westren collegues, you are still stuck in the time warp of post colonial mindset, incapable of looking at facts except through the prism of vested interest. Your job is to be objective, but you have failed your readers miserably.

The west has not suddenly fallen in love with Georgia or its people, it is only interested in the country as a safe and secure route for oil and gas pipeline delivering to European economies. This is the reality beneath all the moralising and ill-concieved retoric. Russia on the otherhand wants a monopoly of oil and gas and the routes and pipelines that carry it.

It is simply a clash of oil and gas interests between the west and Russia. Morals and ethics have no room in international affair, they have been degraded and debased as instruments of spinning of the facts, and Mr. Whewell, that is pricesiley what you are doing. You need to get out of your time warp, the world has changed, even little souls like me can distinguish the facts beneath the web of fiction you are spinning.

I genuinely feel sorry for little Georgia and its people, just like I feel sorry for the suffering of the Palistinians, the two nations suffering from the pilitical game, mere pawns on the political chessboard of post colonial world. Instead of a meveric hothead, poor Gorgia needs a pragmatic head of state capable of playing cat and mouse by balacing the conflicting interest of the west and Russia and keep little Georgia out of harms way.