South Ossetia votes to split off
Georgia’s South Ossetia region overwhelmingly endorsed a split with the government in Tbilisi, with 99% of about 50,000 voters voting “yes” in a referendum, election officials reported.
Before the vote, the hawkish Georgian defense minister was removed in the strongest sign yet that Tbilisi wants to ease a bitter standoff with the separatists and their Russian backers.
A sliver of land in the Caucasus Mountains, South Ossetia has no international recognition but declared its autonomy, resulting in a war, in the 1990s.
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