Situated at the strategically important crossroads where Europe
meets Asia, Georgia has a unique and ancient cultural heritage,
and is famed for its traditions of hospitality and cuisine. Over
the centuries, Georgia was the object of rivalry between Persia,
Turkey and Russia, before being eventually annexed by Russia in
the 19th century. Since emerging from the collapsing Soviet
Union as an independent state in 1991, Georgia has again become
the arena of conflicting interests, this time between the US and
a reviving Russia. Tense relations with Russia have been further
exacerbated by Moscow's support for the separatist regions of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgia's brief interlude of
independence after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia ended
when it was invaded by the Soviet Red Army in 1921 and
incorporated into the Soviet Union a year later. At a glance -
Politics: President Mikhail Saakashvili won a second term in
2008. He swept to power in the "Rose Revolution" in 2003, but
lost control of parliam