South Ossetia

South Ossetia is a disputed region and partially recognized state in the South Caucasus, held as an autonomous province within Georgia during the Soviet era. It declared independence from Georgia in 1990, a claim Georgia answered by abolishing the region's autonomy, and the standoff ignited war in 1991 and flared again in 2004 and 2008, when the fighting drew in Russia. Since then, Ossetian and Russian forces have held de facto control of the mountainous territory, whose status remains contested, its borders guarded and dangerous to cross.