Do states have a legal right to protect nationals living abroad? Muhammad Iqbal and Sulman Hassan report
The South Ossetians and Georgians had been in some low level armed conflict with one another for several weeks before Russia’s armed response. However, it was on 8 August, when much of the world’s attention was focussed on the Beijing Olympic Games, that Russian forces responded forcibly to a Georgian attack on rebels in the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Russia said it could not stand aside because many of the people in the breakaway region are its citizens. It had been reported that Russian peacekeepers in the region had suffered 12 dead and 150 wounded, the peacekeeping forces were quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. Georgia accused Russia of meddling in its internal affairs and supporting the separatists, although Russia’s peacekeepers are supposed to be in a neutral role.
Use of arms
Notwithstanding the extraordinary attention attracted by the Russian forcible response a significant issue that has been relatively silent in public media discussion is that of the legality of the Russian claim
