Occupied territories of Georgia
According to the Georgian law titled Law on Occupied Territories of Georgia, the term “the occupied territories and territorial waters” or “The Occupied Territories” covers the territories of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, Tskhinvali Region (territory of the former South Ossetia Autonomous Region) and waters in the Black Sea located in the aquatic territory of the Black Sea, along Georgia’s state border with the Russian Federation, to the South of the Psou river, up to the administrative border at the estuary of the Engury River. The term also covers the air space over the aforementioned territories.
Occupied territories of Georgia
According to Elizabeth Cullen Dunn and Michael S. Bobick, this situation is called "occupation without occupation" and is a distinctive form of warfare. Vladimir Putin's form of warfare is "the spectacle of dominance", that creates docile populations within the new geographic boundaries of Russia in Europe. The key element of strategy is to use the separatist regions as perches from which to intimidate the larger states that once administered them. A creeping occupation and subsequent takeover of strategic positions in the breakaway regions aim at re-establishing control over Russia's "near abroad". By occupying breakaway provinces and establishing military bases from which to threaten occupation of the rest of Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova, Russia can influence the actions of the sovereign states. The "war without war" and "occupation without occupation" is more flexible and cheaper than a real occupation, since the potential target can be rapidly changed.