Why is Russia in conflict with Georgia?

Answer 1

-Georgia is becoming more and more friendly with the United States.

-Georgia is trying to undermine russia's authority.
-Georgia is a critical area for which natural gas and oil pipelines will run through to reach Europe. Russia does not want this area under US influence for obvious reasons due to the pipelines. Russia would prefer the pipelines to be within a region that is under their "control*".

-South Ossetia wants to become independent from Georgia. Ossetia has Russian support.

*-ally

Edit: I'm sure there is a lot more involved in the conflict, I'm no expert, but thats a few basics.

Answer 2

This was written in 2004 - "There is reliable information, which says that Russia has deployed several special military teams in Abkhazia via the Abkhazian part of the border between Russia and Georgia. In addition, armed groups of the Confederation of Caucasian mountain nations are currently being concentrated in Abkhazia's capital Sukhumi. A lot of members of those groups conducted subversive activities in Shamil Basayev's terrorist groups in Abkhazia,” the statement from the Georgian Foreign Affairs Ministry runs.

The Georgian ministry also set out its protest against the deployment of several hundreds of Russian military men in the republic of Abkhazia. In addition, spokesmen for the ministry called upon the Russian government to take measures to withdraw Russian military men from the republic and to refrain from any actions that could exacerbate the situation in the conflict area, Itar Tass reports.

Answer 3

The country or state?