Shota Rustaveli's The Knight in the Panther's Skin has featured in a number of posts at this site, notably one of Hugh's near impossible quizzes. Shota Rustaveli is a famous poet from Georgia, a wine-making, heart-warming country, where everyone's name ends in -ashvili, unless it ends-adze. The wine is delicious, and you can't really get it in England, except (as far as I know) from one Polish shop in Golders Green. In recent years relations between Georgia and Russia have been strained. Georgia wishes to join NATO, and Russia isn't pleased. A couple of years ago, Russia boycotted Georgian wine. Now it's sending in the tanks. From The Telegraph:  

Russian forces rolled into South Ossetia yesterday to repel a Georgian attack on rebels allied to Moscow. By this morning, it said it had taken full control of the territory's capital Tskhinvali.

Georgia claims to have shot down 10 Russian combat aircraft, but Moscow has only confirmed that two of its planes are missing.

There were reports of high casualties on both sides. Ossetian separatists said Georgian shelling had killed more than 1,600 people while Georgia said Russian air raids on its territory had killed many civilians.

"Hours ago Russia's Black Sea fleet started to move to Gerogia's territory in Abkhazia," said Mr Saakashvili, referring to a Georgian province that has suffered from ethnic tension. "Russian troops and heavy equipment are in upper Abkhazia."

He said Russia was conducting ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Ossetia and Abkhazia's Kodoro Gorge region. Moscow accused Tiblisi of the same crime when Georgian troops invaded South Ossetia on Thursday night.

Russia seems to be reverting to type. From the leading article:  

If anyone believes that war has been banished from European soil, the sight of Russian tanks rolling into the sovereign state of Georgia - albeit a breakaway region within this republic - provides a salutary reminder of the enduring power of territorial and ethnic hatreds.

The tanks and heavy artillery deployed by Russia, whose stark visual images summon memories of Moscow's previous adventures in Afghanistan, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, also show the Kremlin's willingness to settle these disputes by naked force.

First things first: Russia has a case for its actions in South Ossetia. Perhaps two thirds of this tiny region's 70,000 people are ethnic Ossetians and most are believed to favour leaving Georgia and merging with their larger neighbour.

[...]

Yet South Ossetia's plight is unlikely to be the Kremlin's real concern. Ever since President Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's youthful, impetuous leader, made clear his determination to join Nato and the European Union, Russia has done everything possible to subvert this ancient nation. Nothing can disguise the fact that Russia is now offending every canon of international behaviour by using overwhelming force against the sovereign territory of an independent state.

Make no mistake about the unequal nature of this struggle. Georgia has nine jet fighters, while Russia boasts 1,736. Georgia possesses 128 tanks - compared with Russia's 23,000. Imagine, for a moment, that Nato leaders had granted Mr Saakashvili's request for a "membership action plan" during their last summit in Bucharest. Would Russia have dared act in this way if Georgia had been firmly on the path to joining Nato?

Privately, Georgian officials warned that denying this request would give Russia a window of opportunity to sabotage their prospects of Nato membership. President George W. Bush was the only leader who publicly supported Georgia's position precisely because America feared that anything less would trigger Russian intervention. Sadly, his judgment has been vindicated.