Award winning author and journalist Oliver Bullough will give a BGS talk on Wednesday 25 April, 6.30pm at UCL Bedford Way Building, Room 305. 26 Bedford Way, WC1H 0AP. Georgian wine will be provided after the talk.

Abkhazia is one of two bits of Soviet Georgia that declared independence after the collapse of communism. Although its independence has only been recognised by half-a-dozen countries — among them, of course, Russia — it is enough to prevent Tbilisi having any influence over what happens there.

So what is the root of the stand-off? Why do both Abkhaz and Georgians have such strong claims to ownership of this stretch of the Black Sea coast? Oliver Bullough has spent months in Abkhazia studying the history and traces the tale back to its origins.

Oliver Bullough is a journalist and author who specialises in the Caucasus. His book Let Our Fame be Great tells the history of the Russian conquest of the mountains, while his day job is to edit the Caucasus service of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. He is from Wales, studied history at Oxford University, and lived in Russia for seven years. He now lives in east London with his wife and son.