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.
Georgia–Russia relations
Having spent more than a century as part of the Russian Empire, in 1918 Georgia regained independence and established the First Republic. In 1921 Georgia was invaded and occupied by Bolshevik Russia to form the Soviet Union in 1922. When the country regained independence in 1991, the bilateral Russo-Georgian ties were once again strained due to Moscow's support of the separatist regions within Georgia, Georgia's independent energy policies and most recently, its intentions to join NATO.