Georgia holds first vote since war with Russia
Voters in Georgia went to the polls in local elections today in the first ballot since President Mikhail Saakashvili led the country into a disastrous war with neighbouring Russia nearly two years ago.
Saakashvili’s rule has elevated Georgia’s status in the West yet turned it into a bitter adversary of Russia. The brief 2008 war, which Georgia lost, allowed Moscow to consolidate control over two breakaway regions in Georgia – South Ossetia and Abkhazia – and produced an influx of thousands of refugees whose homes were destroyed.