Contacts between Russia and Georgia date back to the 15th and 16th centuries, and the most important stage started in the 1580s, when the Georgian kingdom of Kakheti and the Russian Empire signed a treaty of alliance in 1587.

However, the loss of sovereignty and abolition of the autocephalous status of the Georgian Orthodox Church, along with the Russification policy, gave rise to public discontent and rebellions.

The Menshevik government of Georgia transformed the image of Bolshevik-led Russia from a source of enlightenment into an Asiatic state imbued with oriental backwardness and sought ties with the West through its links to Second International.

Bilateral relations between Georgia and Russia date back hundreds of years and remain complicated despite certain religious and historical ties that exist between the two countries and their people.

It was only belatedly that Catherine the Great of Russia put in place punitive measures against Persia, only to be cut short by her death and the enthronement of Paul against the Empress' wishes.

Lacking his mother's experience and tactfulness, in December 1800, Paul signed the proclamation on the annexation of Georgia to the Russian Empire, which was finalized by a decree on January 8, 1801,[8][9] and confirmed by Tsar Alexander I on September 12, 1801.

Support for the Abkhaz from various groups within Russia, such as the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus and Cossacks, as well as Russian regular military units stationed in Abkhazia, contributed to the worsening of Georgia–Russia relations.

Russian president Boris Yeltsin and Head of State Council of the Republic of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze signed an agreement, formally known as the Summary Document of the Moscow Meeting.

In the meantime, however, on September 25, the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution proposed by Sergey Baburin, which denounced Georgia's policy in Abkhazia.

On September 28, after Georgians lost control over the Sokhumi, Shevardnadze claimed that Russian military authorities masterminded the Abkhaz rebel attack on Sukhumi.

In the aftermath of the military setback in Abkhazia in 1993, the forces loyal to Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first president of Georgia who was ousted as a result of the 1991–1992 Georgian coup d'état, launched an insurgency against the demoralized and unpopular government of Eduard Shevardnadze.

[17] At the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Istanbul Summit of November 1999, agreement was reached that the Russian military bases in Georgia would all be evacuated by Russia before July 1, 2001.

Russia dominated the collective peacekeeping missions in Abkhazia and South Ossetia but was criticized by Georgia and several Western diplomats for failing to maintain neutrality in the conflict zones.

[19] Speaking in a 2006 interview with a Russian newspaper, Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said that Georgia would try to create channels for "direct dialogue" with Abkhazia and South Ossetia alongside existing negotiating formats.

The day before yesterday, in the evening, the first casualties occurred among the Russian peacekeepers since the situation intensified: Maksim Basenko and Vladimir Vasilchuk were shot dead in the Gudauta District.

"Russian peacekeepers continue to act in defiance of their mandated obligations, turning a blind eye to gross violation of law and human rights taking place in their very presence", according to the Georgian Foreign Ministry.

[28] and said that Georgian jets may have fired the missile on their own territory as a way of provoking tensions in the region and derailing a session of the Joint Control Commission on Georgian–South Ossetian Conflict Resolution.

[citation needed] However, Georgia's defense ministry released video the next day showing what appears to be a Russian MiG-29 shooting down the unarmed Georgian drone.

The Russian ambassador to the U.N., Vitaly Churkin, called the demand by the Western states "a tall order" and stressed that Russia had no intention of reversing its plans.

[45] The European Union also urged caution, saying that to increase troop numbers would be "unwise" given current tensions, while the United States called on Russia "to reconsider some provocative steps" it had taken in respect of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia.

[47] Georgian officials claim Russia is changing facts on the ground in order to make it impossible for NATO foreign ministers to give Georgia a Membership Action Plan when they meet in December 2008.

[48] In the meantime, the Russian Cossacks and North Caucasian mountaineers declared their readiness to fight Georgia again in the case of a renewed confrontation in Abkhazia, as they did early in the 1990s.

"[51] Early in May 2008, both the Russian and Abkhaz sides claimed that three more Georgian reconnaissance drones were shot over Abkhazia and declared that Georgia was preparing to mount an offensive into the region in the near future.

The Georgian Army retreated to defend Tbilisi, and the Russians took the main highway and the cities of Poti and Gori without a fight, removing or destroying any military equipment left behind and setting up "buffer zones" around the Abkhazian and South Ossetian borders, gradually withdrawing.

On August 25, 2008, the Federal Assembly of Russia unanimously voted to urge President Medvedev to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.

Georgian diplomat Zurab Abashidze has noted: "When we launched the new so-called Prague format in 2012... we, of course, wanted to restore both trade and transport links and solve humanitarian problems.

But internally, emotionally, people expected that, having restored these practical ties, all these would somehow contribute to the solution of the most complex problems related to the territorial integrity of Georgia.

However, they failed to reach an agreement, and the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms in South Ossetia (a subsidiary dialogue format of the Geneva International Discussions) has stopped working for one year.

In December 2021, Russia condemned NATO's eastward expansion and forwarded its leadership security demands, specifically to never admit Georgia or Ukraine to the alliance.

[79] Georgian lawmakers clashed in parliament over a controversial bill on "foreign agents" that had drawn criticism from Western countries and sparked protests in April 2024.