The Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia lies in the northwest of Russia's troubled North Caucasus region.
Mr Medvedev's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia may also have unpredictable consequences for Russia's north Caucasus.
Kabardino-Balkaria is home to the two highest peaks in the North Caucasus, Mount Elbrus and Dykh Tau.
But even as the world's attention is fixed on Georgia, Russian citizens keep dying in the north Caucasus.
In many ways Tatarstan does not resemble the north Caucasus at all.
Mr Putin has said the law is needed to protect the rights of minorities in ethnically mixed regions such as the North Caucasus.
Migrants from the republics of the north Caucasus and the post-Soviet countries of Central Asia have also spread more conservative interpretations of Islam.
Last year Tamerlan travelled to Russia from the United States and spent six months in the North Caucasus, much of that time in Dagestan.
Mr Putin runs the risk that more and more of the north Caucasus may slip into lawlessness and out of Moscow's sphere of influence.
Denis Burakov, 27, died after the ball - called a zorb - veered off course and fell into a deep gorge in the North Caucasus.
Reports say the Tsarnaevs lived for years in Kyrgyzstan - in Central Asia - and Dagestan, another Russian republic in the North Caucasus which borders Chechnya.
The ethnic Chechen family came to this country in 2002, after fleeing troubles in Kyrgyzstan and then Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in Russia's North Caucasus.
Oil deposits and a successful manufacturing industry mean that Tatarstan sends more money to Moscow than it receives from the federal budget, unlike heavily-subsidised north Caucasus.
Attackers have shot dead an imam and two of his male relations, as they drove to a mosque in the Russian North Caucasus region of Dagestan.
"The region's growth pains are being magnified many times over by these Olympics, " said Vladimir Kimayev, a leader of Environmental Watch of the North Caucasus, a local group.
Although it has not experienced the levels of violence seen elsewhere in the North Caucasus, the republic lives in the shadow of the troubles which have plagued the region.
Many analysts there have warned that once Russia has re-stamped its authority over the North Caucasus it will turn its attention to the South Caucasus, attempting to reassert its influence there too.
Dagestan is one of seven small republics within the Russian Federation that together comprise Russia's North Caucasus region, a predominantly Muslim area which itself is wedged between the Caspian and Black Seas.
Migration, for example, is a major issue in Russia, which has the most immigrants in the world after the U.S. Current estimates range from seven million to twelve million, many of them from the North Caucasus or former Soviet republics like Tajikistan.
Following the talks in Lisbon, Chris Patten. the European Union Commissioner for External Relations, told the BBC that the EU delegation had asked Mr Ivanov to allow the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe to set up an office in the North Caucasus.
It has an outsized financial sector, granted (and not for much longer), but it is also an important three-way conduit between Europe, North Africa, and the Caucasus for goods, services, money, and potentially for energy.
FORBES: Cyprus Has, In Effect, Moved Out Of The Eurozone Roach Motel
Presumably this means the alliance might set off to keep the peace in the Caucasus or rescue hostages in North Africa, but it will not be dragged off to fight wars in South America or Indochina.
Baku itself frequently runs out of water, despite the snow-capped Caucasus mountains a couple of hours' drive to the north-west.
In mid-September, the Kolka Glacier in the Caucasus Mountains collapsed, submerging villages in the Republic of North Ossetia (Russian Federation) under thousands of tons of ice and rock, killing over 120 people.
The danger, it is now assumed, lies in what Pentagon officials call an "arc of instability" that runs through the Caribbean Rim, Africa, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia and North Korea.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Rebasing -- and Reequipping -- for Transformation
From the lowland steppes of the north, the ground rises to the southern border with Georgia which runs through the Caucasus mountain peaks.
应用推荐