How did the Russian troops get to Roki Tunnel in 3 ½ hours from the start of the first shot?
Look at the road on Google maps it is a long windy mountainous road and the closest of any civilization is a mining operation is that is 10 miles away the closest very small town is 17 miles away and I do not know where the military base they came from is.
That means within 3 1/2 hours they would have to get orders to move. Load up the truck and drive down that long mountainous road from I'm not sure were.
i find their response time amazing. How did they do it?
They were moved up to the area on the 4th when Georgia escalated tensions. I suspect they were also put on alert when Georgia started moving it's troops forward again.
The Georgians claim two Georgian villages (within South Ossetia) were fired upon at 10:30. Georgia reports their assault began about 11:55. Depending on which Georgian report you believe, the Russians moved through the tunnel at at 2:30 or 5:30. Russia reports that moved shortly after 3:00.
The Georgians also captured eight or nine South Ossetian villages in a fifteen miles radius around the capitol. It seems pretty clear that both the Georgians and Russians had troops pre-positioned.
The Georgians were able to begin their massive assault within an hour and a half of the alleged firing on Georgian villages in SO. The first reports that Russians are able to engage the Georgian firing positions at Tskhinvali first appear at 20:29.
Here's a eyewitness Reuters report of the all-out-assault on Tskhinvali and surrounding villages.