http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/830d20ec-adc5-11de-bb8a-00144..."An unjustified Georgian attack on South Ossetia sparked the five-day war last August, says the report. Heidi Tagliavini, the Swiss diplomat heading the enquiry, says in an introductory statement: “In the Mission´s view,
it was Georgia which triggered off the war when it attacked Tskhinvali with heavy artillery on the night of 7 to 8 August 2008.”"
"Ms Tagliavini is consistently careful in her judgements. She says: “While the onus of having actually triggered off the war lies with the Georgian side,
the Russian side, too, carries the blame for a substantial number of violations of international law.“
These include, even prior to the armed conflict,
the mass conferral of Russian citizenship to a majority of the population living in South Ossetia and in Abkhazia(part of setting the trap to be sure). It also includes, in terms of an additional violation of international law,
the military action by the Russian armed forces on Georgian territory, far beyond the needs of a proportionate defence of Russian Peace Keepers in Tskhinvali who had come under the Georgian attack.”"
"The report rejects outright Russian allegations that Georgia was carrying out a genocide against the South Ossetian population. But it accepts Tbilisi’s charges that ethnic cleansing took place against ethnic Georgians driven from South Ossetia. Ms Tagliavini says there were also “other violations of international humanitarian law which must be attributed to all sides”."
Putin did a great job of setting a trap in the backyard of a much smaller country and had the good fortune that the president of that country isn't very bright and stepped right into it. These military successes, as in Chechnya, make Putin very popular at home.