South Ossetia is NOT part of Georgia-—Georgia think it is because their own boy Stalin said so in the 1930s.
And this is crucial to understand the south ossetians themselves want nothing to do with Georgia
from wiki-—
According to the Tskhinvali election authorities, the referendum turned out a majority for independence from Georgia where 99% of South Ossetian voters supported independence and the turnout for the vote was 95%[8] and the referendum was monitored by a team of 34 international observers from Germany, Austria, Poland, Sweden and other countries at 78 polling stations[9].
Why? Because they want to take all of Georgia and make it part of Russia.
Why should we care? There is a gas pipeline in Georgia that is the only gas pipeline feeding Europe that does not go through Russia.
By the way, just because they conduct a poll does not give Russia the right to invade another country. That isn't how you establish and maintain international borders.
The United Nations, European Union, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Council of the European Union, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and all other countries in the world recognize South Ossetia as part of Georgia. However, the de facto independent republic governed by the secessionist government held a second independence referendum[6] on November 12, 2006, after its first referendum in 1992 was not recognized by the international community as valid.[7] According to the Tskhinvali election authorities, the referendum turned out a majority for independence from Georgia where 99% of South Ossetian voters supported independence and the turnout for the vote was 95%[8] and the referendum was monitored by a team of 34 international observers from Germany, Austria, Poland, Sweden and other countries at 78 polling stations[9]. However, it was not recognized internationally by the UN, European Union, OSCE, NATO and the Russian Federation, given the lack of ethnic Georgian participation and the legality of such referendum without recognition from the central government in Tbilisi.[10] The European Union, OSCE and NATO condemned the referendum. Parallel to the secessionist held referendum and elections, the Ossetian opposition movement (The Salvation Union of South Ossetia) to Kokoity, organized their own elections in which both Georgian and some Ossetian inhabitants of the region voted in favour of Dmitri Sanakoev as the alternative President of South Ossetia.[11] The alternative elections of Sanakoev claimed full support of the ethnic Georgian population. In 2007, Dmitri Sanakoev became the head of the Provisional Administration of South Ossetia.They had a vote to secede, which nobody recognizes.
It's part of Georgia, the issue will be settled by force of arms, thus they can look forward to being a defacto part of Russia.
Perhaps they'll be pleased with Russian domination.
Your statement is misleading.
The So. Ossetian capitol city of Tskhinvali was only 11% ethnic Ossetian back in the early nineteen hundreds. It was the Russians who moved ethnic Ossetians into and chased ethnic Georgians out of Tskhinvali.