This New York Times piece has been making the rounds this weekend, pointing out, for those who didn’t already know, that Mikheil Saakashvili and Vladimir Putin don’t get along all that well.  But the highly emotional angle between these two heads of state is also indicative of something more … How it may still be difficult for many Russians to come to terms with the inconvenient fact of Georgian sovereignty when there are still so many childhood memories of family vacations spent there, adoration for its food and traditions, and an unescapable sense of ownership.

With the two men now so at odds that they are not speaking, their mutual dislike has in some ways come to define the current state of ties between Russia and Georgia. Mr. Putin, the former president who is now prime minister, has unabashedly told the Russian people that he would like Mr. Saakashvili hung by his private parts. Mr. Saakashvili is said to have mocked Mr. Putin as “Lilli-Putin,” a reference to his height.

“They hate each other,” said Zurab Abashidze, a former Georgian ambassador to Moscow. “I heard, many times, very emotional statements from Saakashvili and from people around him about Putin. And unfortunately, this personal element in the political life of Russia as well as Georgia is still very important.”