What's in a name? Enough to anger Russia, which exercised its veto power June 15 in the United Nations Security Council, and brought an end to the nearly 16-year-old observer mission monitoring a cease-fire between Georgia and its breakaway Abkhazia region.

Russia's veto toppled a Western plan to extend the life of the U.N. mission for another year or even two more weeks to work out a compromise. The vote was 10-1 with four abstentions — China, Vietnam, Libya and Uganda.

The mission's mandate expired at midnight June 16 in New York, requiring about 130 military observers and more than a dozen police to leave. The name — the U.N. Observer Mission in Georgia — and references to Georgia's territorial sovereignty were sticking points.

Following the Georgian-Russian war in the breakaway region of South Ossetia last August, Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgia insists that both regions are part of its territory, but Moscow insists they are not.