Russia’s aims in the conflict had gone beyond securing the pro-Russian enclaves of South Ossetia = (21st century vesion of) Hitler’s aims in the conflict had gone beyond securing the Sudetenland
They are not all that bound by the level of discipline ordinarily expected of a modern army. They carry a lot of alcohol with them. Their officers hide in the armored vehicles.
There's plenty of other bad stuff, but with the fall of the USSR and the displacement of the army from its command position, it's easier for me to imagine the invading force moving to Tbilisi for the purpose of finding more wine and beer than for the purpose of carrying out some sort of rational, previously thought out military action.
Their subsequent behavior in Afghanistan did not disuade me from my earlier estimation.
I still wouldn't like them in my neighborhood ~ the Chechens can tell you all about that (even though the Chechens are equally ill-disciplined and not at all anyone you'd even want in your neighborhood).
It's a smarmy bunch over there and it's best not to impute too much motive to anything they do.