Mail Online: “Is Georgia Putin’s next conquest? Russian-backed troops move disputed border by shifting barbed-wire markers in night-time land raids that threaten to swallow up villages“

Russia’s ongoing occupation of parts of Georgia and the creeping boundary moved by Russian-controlled forces is a focus of a Mail Online article introducing readers to the reality of locals and their separated villages.

The story details the process that has been dubbed "borderization” and involves the frequent shifting of the administrative boundary line between Georgian-controlled territory and the occupied region of Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).

In the piece, Julian Robinson explains how communities residing in the villages on the ABL have found themselves "cut in two” following shifts of the line by Russian-backed troops.

According to the Heritage Foundation, a US-based conservative think tank, there have been more than 50 instances of borderization along the 260-mile Georgia-South Ossetia frontier in the last seven years alone”, the article notes.

While some locals continue to live in separated localities, others have already abandoned their homes for the fear of being "swallowed up” and finding themselves on the territory of the separatist-controlled Tskhinvali region.

[...] locals who spoke to NBC News said they fear for their futures and can do 'nothing to protect ourselves'”, the Mail Online story reads.

Robinson’s story also notes the diplomatic and defence support for Georgia by its allies, including through the joint multinational exercise Noble Partner that launched earlier this month near the country’s capital Tbilisi.

Read the full story here: dailymail.co.uk