Tskhinvali

Tskhinvali is a city on the Great Liakhvi River in the South Caucasus, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, with a population recorded as 30,432 at the 2015 South Ossetian census, down from 42,934 at the last Soviet census in 1989. It became capital of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast in 1922, was renamed Staliniri in 1934 and reverted to Tskhinvali in 1961; Soviet-era nativization policy drew Ossetians from surrounding rural areas into the city, and it suffered heavy shelling and occupation during fighting between Georgian troops and Ossetian forces in 1992 and again during the 2008 Russo-Georgian war.