It’s interesting that the topography is described as the city of Tskhinvali, populated by Ossetians, being surrounded by hills populated by Georgians living in villages.

This reminds me of the topography of Saraevo, where village Serbs in the surrounding hills were constantly sniping DOWNWARDS at the Bosnian Moslems in the lower-elevation city.

It’s remarkable that in this current situation it has supposedly been the lower-elevation densely-populated urban Ossetians sniping UPWARDS a the higher-elevation sparely-populated village Georgians.