Occupied territories of Georgia
Occupied territories of Georgia () are the territories occupied by Russia after the Russo-Georgian War in 2008. They consist of the regions of Abkhazia and the former South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast of Soviet Georgia (currently divided between several administrative divisions of independent Georgia), whose status is a matter of international dispute.
Russo-Georgian War
Poti is the crucial seaport of Georgia on the Black Sea and serves as an essential entrance for Transcaucasia and the landlocked Central Asia. Russian aircraft attacked the town of Poti on 8 August, causing a two-day shutdown of the seaport. Russia positioned ships in the vicinity of Poti and other Georgian ports on 10 August 2008. The next day, Georgian and Russian representatives said that Russian troops were in Poti. However, Russia claimed it had only sent a task force for surveying the area. On 13 August, six Georgian watercraft were submerged by Russian troops in Poti. Anatoliy Nogovitsyn, Russian deputy chief of the General staff, denied the Russian presence in Poti the following day. One day after Russia's declaration of the beginning of the withdrawal from Georgia, 70 Russian soldiers moved into the seaport on the morning of 19 August. Russian soldiers took twenty-one Georgian troops prisoner and grabbed five US Humvees in Poti, taking them to a Russian-occupied military base in Senaki. "The Wall Street Journal" said that Russian actions in Poti constituted an additional attack on the Georgian economy. Russian military was accused of plundering and damaging properties during their presence in Poti, even ransacking toilets.