Aug 27 - U.S. and Russian ships in separate missions in the Black Sea have been a symbolic focus of continuing tension over Georgia.

Russia quickly routed Georgian forces in a brief war over South Ossetia this month, the first time it has sent its forces into combat abroad since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

The crisis has rattled the West and alarmed other former Soviet republics with sizeable Russian minorities, particularly Ukraine and the Baltic states.

Benet Allen reports.

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