By JANE ARMSTRONG, Toronto Globe and Mail

TBILISI, Georgia -- With his country trounced and still occupied by Russian troops, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's own political future might soon be called into question, opposition figures say.

MOSCOW -- In the basement of Moscow's most iconic church, leveled to dust by the Soviets and later rebuilt after communism collapsed, a new exhibit about the doomed Romanov family is drawing crowds.

SUKHUMI, Georgia -- Only the monkeys seem oblivious to the destruction that rained for years on this once-renowned research institute.

Limber-limbed macaques swing from the rafters of their narrow cages like miniature acrobats, while the bigger baboons sit on their large behinds, blinking at tourists, whose admission tickets help pay their room and board.

GAGRA, Georgia -- Technically, this pretty, pebbled beach town lies in Georgia. But no Georgian is spoken in the waterfront cafes and hotels overlooking the Black Sea. Russian is the preferred language and currency.

MOSCOW -- At the Petrovich Club in downtown Moscow, diners pay to eat bland food in rickety chairs around wobbly wooden tables. Modeled after the once-ubiquitous stolovayas, or canteens, the decor is a deliberate throwback to the grim and lean Soviet years.

Customers couldn't be happier.

MOSCOW -- College student Renat Nasipov doesn't have time to go to class.

He works full time driving a moving van to pay his tuition bills and support his single mother. When exam time came in January, Nasipov, 21, knew he would fail.

DZERZHINSK, Russia -- In one of the most polluted cities in Russia, where taps gush bright orange water, factory worker Alexander Popov explains why he loves President Vladimir Putin.

GROZNY, Chechnya -- Once flattened to a pile of rubble, Grozny's streets and sidewalks are alive again with vendors, cafes, afternoon traffic snarls and people just out for a walk.

TIBLISI, Georgia -- At first glance, the family resemblance is unmistakable. Jacob Jugashvili has the same short frame and barrel-chested build of his great-grandfather, Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, a.k.a. Josef Stalin, the iron-fisted dictator who ruled the Soviet Union for 31 years.

But the similarities end there.

MOSCOW -- When Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Minsk last week for talks with Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko, the pair shared a friendly steam bath and dinner at a ski resort, the