Ukraine: The Next Crisis?
Georgia's pro-Western orientation never posed a serious strategic threat to Russia, but Ukraine's NATO ambitions clearly do. Aside from energy leverage, Russia could use Ukraine's Crimea region, with its majority Russian population, to pressure Ukraine into changing course, in the same way that it used Abkhazia and South Ossetia to justify its invasion of Georgia.
The Russian invasion of Georgia has sent shock waves throughout the West and the former Soviet space - especially Ukraine. Indeed, Ukraine could be the next potential crisis.