Russians have long been masters at this, strengthening their dominance by setting different ethnic groups against each other, said Sergei Arutunov, a researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

“Every empire from the Romans on has marched under the idea of ‘divide and conquer,’” he said. “That’s how it’s been here and always will be.”

In the 19th century, the tsars used an alliance with the strategically placed Ossetians to derail anti-Russian resistance leader Imam Shamil’s attempts to unite the northern Caucasus tribes.

The main Ossetian town, which controls two key mountain passes between Russia and Georgia, was named Vladikavkaz — literally “ruler of the Caucasus.”

Stalin took the divide and rule concept to extremes, splitting related groups into different administrative districts and using forced resettlement to transform the ethnic balance.

Decades on, the effects of Stalin’s machinations keep tearing at the Caucasus, whether in the Abkhaz struggle for independence to the south, or a vicious dispute between Ossetians and their Ingush neighbors to the north.

And Grigory Shvedov, editor of Caucasian Knot, a specialist Internet site, says the Kremlin still relies on divide and rule, regardless of the subsequent suffering.

But he also blames local leaders, like Georgia’s first president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, an ultra-nationalist who in the early 1990s fueled hatred between Georgians and their Ossetian and Abkhaz neighbors, with disastrous results.

“These are conflicts were started artificially, rather than based on real ethnic feelings,” Shvedov said. “Politicians play a big role in stirring this up.”

Arutunov said the dangers of nationalism are well understood in the Caucasus, but that young hotheads are easily seduced by the rhetoric.

“I hope the wise will prevail,” Arutunov said. “They must. Otherwise they will all slaughter each other and the Caucasus will end up a desert.”

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