Well, south Ossetia already had de facto independence from Georgia since it won a war with that country in 1992. It was Georgia that invaded south Ossetia, not Russia. Russia entered the region in response to Georgia's invasion of it, to defend it from the Georgians. The south Ossetians do not want to be a part of Georgia. But the west apparently wants south Ossetia to be a part of Georgia, and the US has trained Georgia's armed forces, no doubt so that it can use them as proxy fighters for the US' quest to own everybody's oil.