Yes they did. The war in question began August 7 when Georgia's military invaded S.O. Georgia said the invasion was a response to S.O. shelling into Georgia, but the S.O.'s said that isn't true. Who's telling the truth? Who knows?
That doesn't mean the attack wasn't justified
You're looking at recent isolated instances to back up your opinion that US ally Georgia is right and Russian ally S.O. is wrong. My opinion on this matter comes from the root cause of this fighting... the USSR broke up, Georgia gained it's independence from the USSR and the people of the two autonomous regions in Georgia took that opportunity to seek their independence from Georgia.
I believe those people have the right of self-determination. You need to understand that the people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are not Georgian, and have historically been in conflict with Georgians. They have (successfully) resisted Georgian control since 1991 - that's when this conflict really began.
They responded, as was their right, and Russia, who set the whole thing up, came pouring into Georgia because they had tanks and troops waiting and poised in preparation of Georgia taking the bait and defending themselves.
Maybe you're right... maybe the Russians did engineer the August 7 conflict (I think the Georgians did, but who knows). You can't really use the presence of Russian troops in the area to "prove" your point though - armed conflict has been going on in this area since 1991... you don't think the Russian forces have been there since, oh, say... 1991?
But as I said, the root cause of this wasn't a result of anything other than a centuries-old conflict between people who don't want to controlled by Georgians, and the Georgians who want to control them by force of arms.
I expect you know all this, in fact I would be money on it.
How can you invade a part of your own country?
Will you still be singing that tune when it’s the Southwestern US seceeding to form Aztlan?
Sorry, but you are wrong, Georgians didn’t start the War, Russia did. They set Georgia up by supplying missiles to S O. who then used them to attack Georgia and when Georgia retaliated the Russians moved in troops they had stationed at the border for just this purpose. The Russians had no business being in Georgia regardless. You can spread your BS whereever you want, but don’t expect most of us here on FR to believe it, I certainly don’t.