I don't like Putin and the Russians. But they were baited by Georgia. Ossetia has a very complex and tense political problem.
The Russians did over-react and lost control of its field commanders.
You have it wrong. The Georgians were baited by the separatists in South Ossetia.
"The Georgian Government has leaked extracts from some telephone conversations which reveal that Russian troops crossed the border into South Ossetia several hours before Tbilisi's military intervention against Tskhinvali got under way."