An ethnolinguistic region located on both sides of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, largely inhabited by the Ossetians. Northern part of the region forms North Ossetia-Alania federal subject of Russia. The southern part is South Ossetia.
By 15:00 MSK, an emergency meeting of Security Council had been convened by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Russia's options regarding the conflict in South Ossetia had been discussed.
In late June, Russian military expert Pavel Felgenhauer predicted that Vladimir Putin would start a war against Georgia in Abkhazia and South Ossetia supposedly in August.