The Russians have military bases in South Ossetia because the Ossetians there want the Russians to have bases there. It’s a win-win arrangement for the Russians and the Ossetians, and it started centuries ago, when Russia was ruled by the Romanov Tsarist Dynasty.

During those same olden days, the Russians established military bases in Georgia and in Armenia in similar win-win arrangements, in order to protect those two Christian countries from the Ottoman Empire.

Russia has enjoyed the ability to establish military bases and to conduct military operations in the Caucasus for centuries, because a lot of people there have perceived the Russians to be protectors, as honest brokers in a viciously violent region.

These arrangements started long before there was any petroleum drilling, pipelines or refineries in the Caucasus.