2008 年 8 月1日晚 格魯吉亞與南奧塞梯發生交火事件，雙方都把責任推給對方。最近幾天，俄羅斯和格魯吉亞發生激戰，屍橫遍野，可能引發全麵戰爭。美國國務卿賴斯已出麵了。在北京的格魯吉亞的運動員已宣布可能退出奧運會。南奧的事情引起了全世界的關注。
南奧塞梯是格魯吉亞的一個自治州，與俄羅斯北奧塞梯接壤。位於格魯吉亞北部，麵積約 3900 平方公裏。南奧塞梯麵積約 3900 平方公裏，與俄羅斯北奧塞梯接壤，人口約 19 萬，主要是南奧塞梯人、俄羅斯人和格魯吉亞人。
南奧塞梯在蘇聯解體後宣布獨立，並一直與格魯吉亞中央政府處於對抗狀態，但是與俄羅斯保持密切關係。格魯吉亞與俄羅斯在南奧塞梯問題上一直齟齬不斷。
俄羅斯一直支持南奧塞梯尋求脫離格魯吉亞的努力，俄、格兩國的關係也因此惡化。美國一直表示支持支持格魯吉亞的領土完整，在最新的衝突爆發後馬上呼籲雙方立即停止敵對行動。美國、歐盟以及歐洲安全與合作組織都已經派出特使前往格魯吉亞調停。
歐洲安全理事會警告，南奧塞梯的局勢可能演變成一場全麵的戰爭，給整個地區帶來毀滅性的影響。
格魯吉亞和南奧塞梯的衝突升級，南奧塞梯政府 8 月 2 日起疏散逾千名兒童及婦女，到鄰近俄羅斯的北奧塞梯地區。俄羅斯外交部估計當地爆發全麵戰爭的可能性越來越高。
當然，西方媒體對俄羅斯在這個問題上是持一邊倒的批評態度。
我的朋友轉來一封他的俄羅斯朋友寫的個人意見。我轉發在這兒，幫助人們看到不同的意見。以保證比較全麵、客觀、平衡地來看待格魯吉亞和南奧的衝突問題。
來信摘要如下：
I feel responsible to clarify the situation in Georgia, since I watched CNN and BBC and realized that they cover this story from the Georgian side only.
South Ossetia is a small country formed in 1992 separated from the Georgian territory. It is not populated by the Georgians, but by South Ossetians who are different in origin. In many ways it is fully similar to Kosovo.
Most of the population of the country has Russian citizenship as well South Ossetian citizenship. In 2006 99% votes in the popular referendum of South Ossetia voted for joining Russia.
Georgia opposed those initiatives and began military actions since 1992. Two days ago Georgian troops, without declaring war, began massive shelling and bombardment of South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, which lasted for 14 hours and left civilian thousands fleeing their country across to the Russian border, 1,400 died and the capital city was destroyed (for some reason, this piece gets very little coverage in western news).
Russia required the Security Council of the UN to take action, but it has not acted. In order to protect Russia's citizens and Russia's own peacekeeping troops in Tskhinvali, we sent our tanks to restore peace - which, in turn got massive negative coverage on all international press and had Mr. Saakashvili, Georgia's president shamefully claim that Russia declared war on Georgia and it's "the worst nightmare he can imagine for his young democracy" and beg for the US to come save him.
I wouldn't imagine US not sending troops to a country where US citizens consist a vast majority of population that gets shelled in the middle of the night for no other reason than one shameless politician's ambitions to get Western support.
So guys, that's how it looks from this side of the world - and that's not Iraq, where no US people were dying and no arms of mass destructions were ever found, that's across the river and our citizens mostly - it is up to you to make up your mind what you believe or not, and let us all hope that does not evolves into a massive armed conflicts with more casualties.
阿涓：祝你夏天過的愉快。謝謝來訪。