ABSTRACT
Once granted independence, Georgia broke away completely from Russia, declining membership of the new Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which to some extent filled the economic gap left by the break-up of the former USSR. Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in an ethnic conflict arising from the difficulty of defining territories to the mutual satisfaction of the two new countries. Georgia has itself been torn apart by the presence of ethnic minorities, each seeking some degree of autonomy within Georgia, if not independence from it.
