Russia claims it sent troops to South Ossetia, to protect Russian citizens. They forget to mention, however, how in the previous period they handed out Russian Federation passports to the population of South Ossetia, which is de jure a part of Georgia. This is violation of international law. No country has the right to grant its own citizenship massively to the population residing in the territory of another country. This is an attempt to re-tailor internationally acknowledged borders. But Russia has done this. And this is a fact. Now it is using the pretext it is protecting its citizens to invade whole of Georgia. The proper word to use here would be passport holders, NOT citizens.

Prior to the escalation of this conflict , relations between Ossetians and Georgians in and around the conflict zone were improving. So much so that people were freely moving between Tskinvali and Georgia proper, and doing business together. However, Russians hated to see these relations getting warmer and resorted to provocations to escalate tensions each time they see signs of settlement. They used the Ossetian separatist regime as a cat's in their manipulations. But separatists are not by any means the voice of the entire Ossetian people. Both Georgians and Ossetians want peace. But Russia would never let them live peacefully, artificially sparking up tensions between them. Why? Had Ossetians and Georgians come to terms what reason Russia would then have had to invade Georgia in order to stop it from joining NATO? Surely, the thawing up relationships between Georgian and Ossetians and between Georgians and Abkhazs is by no means in the interests of Russia. This would have left Russia without a pretext to attack Georgia. I am sure Ossetian people also feel they have been used as pawns by Russia to satisfy its imperialistic ambitions.

Sadly the current situation attests to this maxim: "Today - Russian passport holders, tomorrow - Russian troops".