“newly minted russian citizens” is misleading.
the soviet and stalin moved russian nationals into various peripheral regions for the purpose that putin used recently as an excuse to invade ossetia. even more ossetians now have russian papers.
the statue of stalin in gori was not damaged by the russians during their recent invasion.
interesting, john mccain visted in 2006, according to wikipedia:
>On August 26, 2006, the high-ranking delegation of the United States Senators led by the Arizona Senator John McCain paid a visit to the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone. The group visited Tskhinvali and met with the de facto leader Eduard Kokoity. Speaking about his visit to Tskhinvali, Senator McCain said that the trip was “not very productive.” Senator McCain said:
“Because there was not a direct response to our questions about why OSCE has been blocked from doing its job; why there has been no progress on peace initiatives from Georgia, from the UN, from the OSCE, from other organizations - there has been no progress. I think that the attitude there is best described by what you see by driving in [Tskhinvali]: a very large billboard with a picture of Vladimir Putin on it, which says ‘Vladimir Putin Our President’. I do not believe that Vladimir Putin is now, or ever should be, the President of sovereign Georgian soil”.<
Ossetia is a place where Russia paid the people to annoy and harass the Georgians.