In contrast to President Saakashvili's tendentious recounting of how he almost got USA into war w/Russia, here's my summary: http://www.unz.com/isteve/olympic-war-games-past-when-putin-and-bush-negotiated-war-or-peace-in-beijing/ …https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-russia-invaded-georgia-1533682576 …
Georgia's Shevardnadze and Russia's Yeltsin signed 1992 Sochi agreement recognizing South Ossetian autonomy with international (e.g., Swiss) observers brought in to observe border. Neutrals saw at 11:30 pm on 8/7/2008 a Georgian tank invasion of South Ossetia, starting the war.