[Snipey]

How can it be a Russian victory if it did not stabilize anything? Russia's goal was stability, they have achieved that. However, the war was limited to the Caucasian Region, so other NATO states, (all NATO states except UK/US) had no interests in that region. Why would France risk a war with Russia over Georgia?

Finally, I hope this statement from Moscow Defense Brief, one of the most credible sources on the war, will end the arguments here, and we can focus on tanks:

"external observers frequently miss the point that Russia’s stake in the conflict over the unrecognized republics is much higher that that of Georgia’s entry into NATO or the destabilization of energy transit routes that bypass Russia. Russia simply could not afford to lose: in view of the harsh nature of the conflict in Abkhazia and Georgia in the early 1990s, Georgia’s seizure of these territories would mean ethnic cleansing, and the flight to Russian territory of many tens of thousands of embittered and armed refugees. The loyalty of the North Caucasus republics of North Ossetia and Adygeya, tied by blood relation to South Ossetia and Abkhazia, would be undermined. North Ossetia, moreover, is the largest and most loyal autonomous republic in the region. Russia would have been shown to be weak before the entire North Caucasus, and this would have marked a return to the situation of the 1990s."

It is interesting that both sides used T-72s. Were there any variants between Russian and Georgian tanks?