Maybe, we’re at the turning point. The Russians have been driving around the countryside today, but there doesn’t look like any new aggressive actions. The Georgian defenses in front of Tblisi can only be improving. Not to mention the arrivial of the 50 Estonian volunteers! (Is that like the elves coming to Helm’s Deep?)

I think that the crisis is nearing an end.

It might just be possible to start speculating about outcomes without endangering ourselves with fart gas …

I think that either Saakashvili will have to leave office or Georgia will have to cede Abkhazia and S. Ossetia. The payoff is that Georgia will become a full client state of the United States.
Russia has a legitimate claim in the deaths of its peacekeepers during the initial assault on Tskhinvali and some concession will need to be made.
If Saakashvili resigns, the speaker of the parliament, David Bakradze would be next in line. He is a political ally of Saakashvili, the leader of his United Nation Party.
If Saakashvili doesn’t resign, I don’t see how either independence or union with Russia for the breakaway regions can be avoided. I reckon that plebiscites would be held and the seperation will become formal.
The good news for Georgia is that the United States will lavish its attention on the Caucasus nation. (I can’t explain, but, there is already feverish activity in surprising agencies of the federal govt.)

Leastwise, that’s how it looks from here …