The Republic of South Ossetia began in violence. A war in the early 1990s, a de facto split from Georgia, and a part in another semi-civil war some 15 years later – with Russian backing.
It’s not a name that rolls easily off the tongue; too many soft syllables, maybe just too many syllables in general. It’s not incredibly accessible, on the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus mountains. It’s an agricultural place, and recognised as a state by only five UN members: Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Syria and Nauru. In short, it’ll likely never be a thriving metropolis or a tourist hotspot.