War in Georgia and the 'Russian Card' in Ukrainian Politics
Journal: PonarsEuarasia - Policy Memos
Year: 2012

Escalation of the South Ossetian conflict into a Russian-Georgian war immediately changed the security climate in the post-Soviet space. For the first time since 1991, the Russian Federation officially rejected internationally recognized borders. The territorial integrity of post-Soviet states was among the fundamental principles of the “peaceful divorce” that gave rise to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It took six years of Ukrainian independence before Russia agreed to include th