Trucks lined up along the Georgian Military Highway 25km south of the Kazbegi border crossing into Russia. Since Georgia’s brief 2008 war with Russia in South Ossetia the GMH is the only route across the mountains from Georgia that is still open. The GMH remains a key transit route for commercial trucking between Russia and Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey. The Georgian government has made a strategic decision to allow this route to say open to avoid provoking Russia but traffic has increased dramatically as other trade with Russia is now restricted. Truckers are sometimes forced to sleep in their cabs for days or even weeks waiting for permission to cross.