History of South Ossetia and its Russian "peacekeepers"

Before the creation of the Soviet Union, South Ossetia didn't exist. There was only "Ossetia," and it was NORTH of the Caucuses (Georgia is SOUTH of the Caucuses), inside of a region that we (and Georgians) know as Russia. When the Soviets rolled tanks into and seized Georgia by force, they created "South Ossetia" in Georgia, moving Ossetians in to enjoy the beauty of Georgia, which, at the time, had become usurped by the USSR. Ossetians have never been Georgian. South Ossetians are really Ossetians who moved into the region during Communism and this is why they are allied with Russia today.

Russia has used the separatist regions (that they created in the early 1920's) to continue their strategy of keeping Georgia "imbalanced," to put it nicely. They finance regular revolts in these areas, pass out Russian passports to good separatists and even allow the killing of people with Georgian last names (for which Russia is currently being investigated for ethnic cleansing at the Hague in the Netherlands).

"But Russia is supposed to be a peacekeeper in the area!" you say. Aye, here's the rub: Russia financed revolts after the fall of the Soviet Union to overthrow Georgia's democratically elected president at the time. The president fled, fearing the worst, and the Russian-financed revolutionaries instilled their own president, former USSR Minister Edvard Shevardnadze. Shevardnadze, being a Russian implant himself, had no problem agreeing to Russia as a peacekeeper in those regions.

Only since 2003 has Georgia been led by a democratic leader. From the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990's until then, Georgia continued to be under the thumb of Russia. We are now seeing an independent Georgia wanting its land back from Russia's usurpation of it centuries ago.