RUSSIA'S FIVE-DAY WAR: Elite 250

An in-depth and informed analysis of the Georgian conflict. Since becoming President of Russia in 2000, Putin has striven to re-assert Moscow's influence over former Soviet states in Russia's "Near Abroad." In 2008 the Kremlin manipulated a secessionist movement in the Georgian region of South Ossetia to provoke Saakashvili into armed action. Fully illustrated in color.