Russian troops deployed in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and particularly Russia’s recognition of the breakaway republics, has brought stability to the region, assures independent military analyst Dmitry Evstafyev.
Anyway, the $1 billion that Russia is investing annually into S.Ossetia and which mostly goes into reconstruction of infrastructure and energy supplies, does not look like a big deal.
Still, Evstafyev says, “there are two major obstacles to S.Ossetia becoming a viable country and they are firstly corruption and secondly – clan diversity of the Ossetians themselves. If they overcome these two obstacles – nothing dangerous could emerge.”