There is no anti-Western conspiracy from Russia in Caucasus. No plot to weaken the USA, or something to do with oil. Russia is doing what she can afford herself to do, just to be nasty with Georgia.
Russia and Georgia were getting along very well for 200 years. Their relations were equal, friendly and close both in the time of the Russian Empire and the USSR. The famous Russian general in the Russia-Napoleion War, Bagration was a Georgian. Georgian nobles were well treated at the Tsar’s court, and Georgians had their culture, language and territory preserved well. Joseph Stalin and his infamous Security Chief (KGB) Lavrentiy Beria were Georgians. They ruled Russia! Ed. Shevarnadze, Gorbachev’s Foreign Minister was a Georgian. Russians had a lot if respect to Georgian artists, movie directors, sculptures, musicians and vice versa. Georgian men loved Russian blond women, and Russian women loved Georgian men… What was the cat that ran between the two nations? Too much of nationalism. After the USSR collapsed the Georgian nationalists came to power there. They started whimpering about “Russian colonialism”, “oppression”, and so on. They even opened “the Museum of Russian Occupation” in Tbilisi. Can one imagine that? Same like in Estonia! All these offended Russians’ feelings deeply. Georgian politicians are eager to establish strong economic and military ties with the USA to replace the natural(200 years together) Russian influence in the region. And that is also something Russia could not be enthusiastic with. Gerogians have never been nice with their national minorities-Ossetians and Abkhazians. Georgians demonstrated arrogance and declared their cultural superiority over the minorities. In the time of the USSR, the Moscow was an arbiter over the Georgians and their minorities conflicts, but after the USSR ceased to exist, the minority did not want to be a part of Georgia. They wanted to join Russia. Georgian uncontrolled mobs stormed the Ossetian capital Tshinval. There were a lot of civilian casualties. Later Edward Shevarnadze sent his troops to pacify Abkhazia. Both conflicts were stopped by Russian Military involvement. Russian peace-keepers are deployed there since than. Are they really neutral? They are not. They are more on the separatist side. Because of the Georgia confrontational stance, Russia does not allow Georgia to regain the separatist regions by military force, and is using the two unsolved conflict to keep pressure on Georgia.