That should tell you who the transgressors were that were attacking those same civilians.
Again, if I recall correctly, a good number of those civilians in the "conflict zones" had dual citizenship or at least a Russian passport.
So when Georgia started shelling them, Russia responded.
Russia has been deploying Russian passports in the conflict zone for two decades, by force... So the reason "defend our citizens, friends" was a "Putin-made". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/265...
Many Ossetians headed south to the Georgian side as conflict began, before Russian troops took Tskinvali. Many of them now live in a refugee camps near Gori. http://www.demotix.com/news/77308/refugee-camp-gori-georgia#...
And there have been an ethnic cleansing of Georgians after Russian troops arrived: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing_of_Georgians_...
The other points can also be challenged considering there are always going to be some numbers in the population that that are pro-Russian and some that are anti-Russian in that region. And there will be further conflict with the anti side.
We can argue on details endlessly and it's against my intention. The case is complicated indeed.
To keep it simple: Russia has been "operating" in this region for a long time and it's intention has always been to control Caucasus. It still continues such politics.