It's a little complicated, but I'll try to give you the basics.
Georgia is a country directly south of Russia. In Georgia there is a breakaway republic called South Ossetia who declared their independence from Georgia in 1992, but their independence has not been diplomatically recognized by the U.N. and according to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, 90% of South Ossetians possess Russian passports and thereby qualify for protection under the Russian constitution. Since the separation there has been a lot of conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia, but the current major conflict formally began on August 7th, 2008 with a military attack by Georgia into South Ossetia. Georgia says the attack was to stop the shelling of Georgian civillians by South Ossetian rebels. Russian armed forces quickly responded with a large scale counter-attack into South Ossetia and advancing to a significant extent into Georgia, to the general disapproval of the rest of the world. The conflict also involves The Republic of Abkhazia, an autonomous republic having separated from Georgia, located at the northwest tip of Georgia with Russia directly to the north. On August 9, a second front was opened by the military of the Republic of Abkhazia in the Kodori Valley, the only region of Abkhazia that was, before the war began, still in effective control of Georgian loyalists. On August 12, 2008, Russian President Medvedev said that he had ordered an end to military operations in Georgia. Later on the same day Medvedev approved a six-point peace plan brokered by President-in-Office of the European Union, Nicolas Sarkozy, in Moscow.
The 6 points are:
1. No recourse to the use of force.
2. Definitive cessation of hostilities.
3. Free access to humanitarian aid (addition rejected: and to allow the return of refugees).
4. Georgian military forces must withdraw to their normal bases of encampment.
5. Russian military forces must withdraw to the lines prior to the start of hostilities. While awaiting an international mechanism, Russian peacekeeping forces will implement additional security measures (addition rejected: six months).
6. Opening of international discussions on the modalities of lasting security in Abkhazia and South Ossetia (addition rejected: based on the decisions of the UN and the OSCE).
Russia and Georgia both signed it on the 15th. Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he expected the withdrawal to pre-conflict positions to be completed within three to four days. As of then, Russian checkpoints still blocked the main east-west highway linking Tbilisi with Georgia's Black Sea ports. There's a WHOLE LOT more to it, but that's the basic info up to now. Hope it helps you understand a little better.
