Relations between Moscow and Tbilisi have beenstrained ever since Mikhail Saakashvili was elected president ofGeorgia more than four years ago following a popular movement known asthe "Rose Revolution." And in January of this year, Mr. Saakashvili wasre-elected, saying he would pursue many of the policies he began duringhis first term in office.
Analysts say many of the tensionsbetween Tbilisi and Moscow can be attributed to Mr. Saakashvili'spro-western policies, including his goal of membership in the NorthAtlantic Treaty Organization - or NATO. During a recent trip toGeorgia, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeated Washington'ssupport for Georgia's NATO membership bid.
Russia vehementlyopposes Georgia's desire to become a NATO member. Jason Lyall withPrinceton University (Woodrow Wilson School of Public and InternationalAffairs) says Russia's strong opposition is part of President DmitriMedvedev's robust foreign policy.
"To imagine this from aRussian perspective, you would now have a Georgia inside NATO," hesaid. "And Georgia borders unto Chechnya. And it is very hard to thinkof a more sensitive issue for Russians than Chechnya. And now you wouldhave NATO membership right on its doorstep in the north Caucasus."
"Sothis is caught up with that. It is also caught up now with [President]Medvedev's desire to show a more strident Russian foreign policy, amore prestige-seeking policy. This would be a huge blow to his regimeif NATO could move this close into what are considered vital Russiannational interests," he continued.
Another major source offriction between Georgia and Russia is the issue of the breakaway,separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia - two regions withinGeorgia, but bordering Russia. They declared their independence fromTbilisi in the early 1990s.
President Saakashvili has vowed torestore Georgia's territorial integrity by bringing them back into thefold. But analysts say little progress has been accomplished in thatarea, especially since Russia has been increasing economic andpolitical ties with the two regions.
Experts say the West islooking with interest and concern at developments in Georgia,especially as President Saakashvili tries to consolidate democraticgains there. Svante Cornell is with Stockholm's Institute for Securityand Development Policy.
"After the 'Rose Revolution' four yearsago, Georgia has truly been the country in the former Soviet bloc,after the Baltic states in the early 1990s, to thoroughly remake theircountry, to reform and to install a democratic government that is afunctioning independent state - although there is, of course, a longway to go before Georgia consolidates its democracy," he said.
"Ithas made tremendous progress and has become a model and a symbol ofwhat can actually be achieved - in anti-corruption and democracybuilding. And Russia doesn't like that. But for the West, of course, ifGeorgia fails, if Georgia is allowed to fall, this means that any hopesthat we may have of democracy building in this part of the world, inthis south-eastern corner of Europe, is going to fail," he added.
Many experts, including Ronald Suny from the University of Chicago, say Georgia is important to the West for another reason.
"It'sa corridor - a very important corridor - for oil from the Caspianregion going to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean through Turkey," hesaid. "So it's now an area that has become economically important aswell."
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United Stateshas provided Georgia with considerable aid to support its political andeconomic reforms. Svante Cornell says Washington has a lot at stake inGeorgia.
"Across the region, from Ukraine over the Caucasus toCentral Asia, there is no country in which the United States hasinvested so much of its prestige as in Georgia - which means that ifsuddenly Georgia is allowed to fail and if the United States does notstand up for Georgia and Georgia's integrity and security, everygovernment from Kiev to Tashkent will draw the conclusion that theUnited States is not a serious partner. And in that sense, for a verylong time, it will undermine U.S. interests in the whole of Eurasia,"he said.
Cornell and other analysts say the United States andother western nations could play an important diplomatic role indefusing tensions between Russia and Georgia in order to keep thesituation in that volatile region from spiraling out of control.