Georgia

A one-way ticket from Russia to Georgia bought Oleg Panfilov journalistic freedom. After the success he has now gained in Georgia, he reflects upon the hopelessness of journalism in Russia.

Last year openDemocracy Russia editor Zygmunt Dzieciolowski travelled in Georgia and Abkhazia. In Zugdidi he met Georgian refugees from Abkhazia with one question uppermost in their minds - would they ever be able to go back?

I crossed from Abkhazia into Georgia to reach the town of Zugdidi, and my thoughts inevitably turned to my mother. She had never visited Georgia, but I saw that the people there had faced exactly the same dilemmas that she faced back in 1939: should they flee and abandon everything, or should they risk staying?

I'm not sure I can recommend the Abkhazian house wine that gets served in the bars and restaurants of Sukhumi. The Abkhazians make some drinkable wine, like the 'Psou' brand that is served in Moscow's upscale Aromatniy Mir supermarket chain, but their rough and ready house wine is something to be avoided.

In August 2008 Zygmunt Dzieciolowski was in Georgia. He interviewed Mikheil Saakashvili, as it happens just twenty hours before the war with Russia broke out. Zygmunt was assured by the President that there were no plans for military action, but later that night he felt very sure that the war could begin at any moment.

Brutal wars in Chechnya and now trouble in places such as Ossetia and Ingushetia have shown the world that ethnic conflict and Islamic separatism are seen as serious threats to Russia, even as it tries to regain some of the power it wielded during the Cold War.

But not all of Russia's Muslim republics are so restive. Welcome to sunny Tatarstan.

Produced by Jason Maloney & Zygmunt Dzieciolowski

Field Producer: Oleg Pavlov

Associate Producer: Aidar Galyautdinov

As the recent war between Russia and Georgia shows, the aftershocks of the collapse of the Soviet Union are still being felt today. 15 years ago, trouble started when two parts of Georgia, itself newly independent, tried to break away. War followed and entire communities were uprooted. Today over 200,000 refugees live in political limbo, unable to forget the place they once called home.

Aired the week of October 24 on Foreign Exchange.

Produced by Kira Kay, Jason Maloney and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Louise Lee-Jones, Special to the Pulitzer Center

Louise Lee-Jones is in Georgia accompanying a mini-study tour from the European Parliament looking at the reproductive health needs of women and young people following the recent fighting and displacement. As well as meeting with officials, they will be visiting temporary camps in both Tbilisi and Gori. Lee-Jones is in Georgia to provide technical input and to ensure that the message about the needs of women and young people is communicated.

Jason Maloney and Kira Kay's reporting from the Georgia/Russia conflict aired on HDNet World Report at 9 p.m. ET on September 16, 2008. The length of the report is approximately 35 minutes.

Click here to see your local broadcast times as well as which restaurants, bars and retailers carry HDNet programming.

Thomas Goltz, special to the Pulitzer Center

Well, it seems to be over, surprise, surprise, unless it turns into WW III, which I hope it does not.

The Caucasus War of 8.8.8 that is, the two-week (or two day) hurly burly in the mountainous southwest corner of the defunct Soviet Union that was a national debacle for West-obsessed Georgia and a crushing victory for a resurgent Russia.

They've been dreaming about independence for years. In 1999 Abkhazia's citizens voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence in a national referendum. When I met top Abkhaz politicians only few weeks ago, "independence" and "sovereign state" were terms they used frequently and longingly. For them, a return to Georgia was simply unacceptable. They called Russia their "window to the world". However, they also remembered periods during the Yeltsin years when their neighbour to the North did not always seem to be a reliable ally.