Georgia - Ossetia - Russia

Maybe I'm being cynical, but three suspicions:

• Russia is really funding and supporting the separatists specifically to cause problems for Georgia.
• It's about the oil, or specifically the oil pipelines. Georgia sits squarely on the main pipeline route to the Black Sea, and Russia would rather be the ones in that position.
• Russia will say anything that the rest of the world wants to hear about peaceful resolution and cease-fires, but the tanks won't stop rolling until the pipelines are solidly under Russian control.