North Ossetia profile

6 November 2012 Last updated at 14:58 GMT One of Russia's smallest regions, mountainous North Ossetia has fallen prey to the spillover from the violent unrest that plagues its neighbours in the volatile North Caucasus.

This was starkly illustrated in September 2004, when armed attackers stormed a school in the town of Beslan. In the violent end to the siege 330 people were killed; more than half of them were children.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the attackers were international terrorists with links to Chechen separatists and funding from al-Qaeda. He accused them of seeking to unleash violence across the North Caucasus in order to strike at Russia's south.

Ousted Chechen separatist president Aslan Maskhadov, who was killed just six months later, condemned the seizure of the school but blamed Russian policy in Chechnya, describing the attackers as "madmen" seeking to avenge the Chechen people for atrocities carried out by Russians.

Remembering the victims: The Beslan siege ended in a bloodbath

The only attacker thought to have survived was later sentenced to life imprisonment. Campaigners continue to accuse the Russian authorities of a cover-up and want further investigation into events leading up to and during the siege.

Attacks blamed on Islamist insurgents continue to plague North Ossetia. Speaking after a bomb blast killed 17 people in the regional capital Vladikavkaz in September 2010, regional president Taymuraz Mamsurov said the authorities were "at war with terrorists" in the North Caucasus.

History

Ethnic Ossetians and Russians make up most of the population of North Ossetia. Russian influence in the area increased in the 18th century with the founding of a military outpost at Vladikavkaz.

In the early 1920s the territory was part of the short-lived Soviet Mountain Republic - made up of six districts including Chechnya and Ingushetia. Autonomous status was given to the districts in 1924; in 1936 North Ossetia became an autonomous Soviet republic.

North Ossetia fought a bloody conflict with its eastern neighbour, the Russian republic of Ingushetia, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Ingush forces, in pursuit of a historical claim to Prigorodny district on the right bank of the Terek river, were repelled in 1992 with the support of Moscow. Hundreds died in the fighting, and many thousands of Ingush civilians fled North Ossetia for Ingushetia.

Ossetians divided

War broke out in the South Ossetia region of Georgia, just over the border from North Ossetia, in August 2008. Russian forces drove Georgian troops out of the region, which declared independence from Georgia in 1991 and has been run by a secessionist government ever since.

Thousands of South Ossetians fled to the North in the 1990s amid the violence that followed the declaration of independence. North Ossetia maintains strong ethnic links with the territory.

Rich in resources - including unexploited oil and gas reserves - North Ossetia is the most industrialised and urbanised republic in the North Caucasus. It also has tourism potential; plans for a ski resort were announced in 2003.

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South Ossetia profile

30 May 2012 Last updated at 14:12 GMT Mountainous South Ossetia, which is officially part of Georgia, is separated from North Ossetia in Russia by the border between the two countries running high in the Caucasus Mountains. Much of the region lies more than 1000 metres above sea level.

Long a source of tension in the region, South Ossetia was the focus of a full-blown war between Russia and Georgia in 2008. In the aftermath, it declared independence from Georgia and was recognised by Russia, although only a few other countries followed suit.

South Ossetia is inhabited mostly by Ossetians who speak a language remotely related to Persian. Georgians account for less than one-third of the population.

Georgia is adamant that there can be no compromise over the status of South Ossetia to the extent that it avoids the use of the name South Ossetia, which it sees as implying political bonds with North Ossetia.

Insisting that North Ossetia is, in fact, the only Ossetia, Tbilisi prefers to call South Ossetia by the historic Georgian name of Samachablo or, more recently, Tskhinvali Region.

South Ossetians celebrate Russian recognition of their territory in 2008

In August 2008 Georgia's efforts to regain control of the area suffered a crippling blow when Russia - the South Ossetian separatists' military backers - defeated a Georgian incursion into South Ossetia in a bloody five-day conflict.

History

The Ossetians are believed to be descended from tribes which migrated into the area from Asia many hundreds of years ago and settled in what is now North Ossetia.

As the Russian empire expanded into the area in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Ossetians did not join other peoples of the North Caucasus in putting up fierce resistance.

By tradition, the Ossetians have had good relations with Russians and were regarded as loyal citizens, first of the Russian empire and later of the Soviet Union.

They sided with the Kremlin when Bolshevik forces occupied Georgia in the early 1920s and, as part of the carve-up which followed, the South Ossetian Autonomous Region was created in Georgia and North Ossetia was formed in Russia.

Violence flares

In the twilight of the Soviet Union, as Georgian nationalist Zviad Gamsakhurdia came to prominence in Tbilisi, separatist sentiment burgeoned in South Ossetia.

After several outbreaks of violence between Georgians and Ossetians, the region declared its intention to secede from Georgia in 1990 and, the following year, declared de facto independence.

The collapse of the USSR and Georgian independence in 1991 only strengthened South Ossetia's determination to break with Tbilisi.

Sporadic violence involving Georgian irregular forces and Ossetian fighters continued until the summer of 1992 when agreement on the deployment of Georgian, Ossetian and Russian peacekeepers was reached.

Political stalemate followed. Separatist voices became less strident during President Shevardnadze's rule in Georgia, but the issues returned to the foreground when Mikhail Saakashvili replaced him as president.

South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity welcomed Russian troops in August 2008

Making clear his intention to bring the breakaway regions to heel, Mr Saakashvili offered South Ossetia dialogue and autonomy within the Georgian state.

But his offer fell far short of separatist demands, and in 2006 South Ossetians overwhelmingly voted to restate their demand for independence in a referendum that Georgia did not recognise.

Tensions came to head in early August 2008, when, after nearly a week of clashes between Georgian troops and separatist forces, Georgia launched a concerted air and ground assault attack on South Ossetia, briefly gaining control of Tskhinvali.

Declaring its citizens to be under under attack, as most South Ossetians have Russian passports, Moscow sent in troops and launched air attacks on the Georgian forces.

Within days Russian forces had swept the Georgians out of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and then proceeded to occupy parts of Georgia, causing panic in Tbilisi.

Recognition

Following Western protests, Russia pulled its forces back towards South Ossetia and Abkhazia under a cease-fire agreement, but days later proceeded formally to recognise both South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

Internationally, only Russian's Latin-American allies Venezuela and Nicaragua have recognised South Ossetian independence, apart from a few Pacific island states.

In April 2009, Russia bolstered its position in South Ossetia by signing a five-year agreement to take formal control of its frontiers with Georgia proper, as well as those of Abkhazia.

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