FACTBOX-Russia recognises South Ossetia and Abkhazia

(Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced on Tuesday that Moscow had decided to recognise Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

The announcement followed Georgia's attempt to regain control of South Ossetia by force earlier this month, leading to a Russian counter-attack in which Moscow's forces also advanced into Georgia proper.

Here are key facts about the two regions:

SOUTH OSSETIA:

* South Ossetia, about 100 km (60 miles) north of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, broke away from Georgia in a 1991-92 war that killed several thousand people. It has close ties with the neighbouring Russian region of North Ossetia.

* The majority of the roughly 70,000 people living in South Ossetia are ethnically distinct from Georgians. They say they were forcibly absorbed into Georgia under Soviet rule and want to exercise their right to self-determination.

* Until the recent conflict, a 500-strong peacekeeping force from Russia, Georgia and North Ossetia monitored a 1992 truce, though sporadic clashes between separatist and Georgian forces killed dozens of people in the last few years.

* The separatist leader is Eduard Kokoity.

ABKHAZIA:

* A Black Sea region bordering Russia, Abkhazia was once the favourite holiday destination of the Soviet Union's elite. It accounts for about half of Georgia's coastline.

* It fought a war in the early 1990s to drive out Georgian forces. The conflict killed an estimated 10,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands to leave their homes.

* Georgia says almost 250,000 people, most of them ethnic Georgians, were driven out by the conflict and are now registered as internally displaced. Abkhazia's separatist authorities say there are no more than 160,000 internally displaced people.

* Abkhazia's separatist administration says the region's population is 340,000. Tbilisi says that is artificially inflated.

* The Abkhaz people are ethnically distinct from Georgians. They say they were forcibly absorbed into Georgia under Soviet rule and now want to exercise their right to self-determination. Separatist officials say over 80 percent of residents have been issued with Russian passports.

* The International Crisis Group think tank says a Soviet census in 1989 showed ethnic Abkhaz accounted for 18 percent of the population, ethnic Georgians 45 percent and other groups, mostly Russians and Armenians, the rest.

* Starting in the late 1990s, some ethnic Georgians began returning to their homes in Abkhazia's Gali district, near the de facto border with Georgia. About 50,000 people have returned to the district.

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit, Editing by Jon Boyle)