The reason Lithuania is supporting Georgia is because the Putin-Medvedev government is a very real threat to Lithuania. Whatever the faults of Georgia’s president, Georgia is not and, furthermore, is rightfully seen as a bellwether for Russia’s relations with the successor states of the USSR.

As for the Ossetians, Russia is plainly using them as a tool and pretext to reassert itself in a neighboring country. Lithuania and other states in similar positions are justifiably concerned that Russia could deploy similar arguments in justifying an “intervention” in pretty much any former Soviet Republic and, so, are justified in taking steps to protect themselves, including, at minimum, expressing moral support for Georgia as it faced what seemed to be an imminent occupation and removal of its government.

You also neglect to mention (and, perhaps, consider) that Ossetian forces were shelling Georgian villages repeatedly in the run-up to Georgia’s decision to try and gain control. I wonder what you would have suggested Georgia do in this case other than what it actually did. In fact, I think it was Russia that committed the greater strategic blunder in Georgia in the way that it handled itself. For more on this, see my latest http://www.alfa.lt/straipsnis/c85098.