Jeff, the Russians did this once before. Remember the ugly Clinton days? Russia used SS-21’s back then in Chechnya.
On 21 October, 1999 US satellites [reportedly the Defense Support Program] tracked two Russian short-range SS-21 ballistic missiles launched northeast of Grozny. The missiles slammed into a crowded Chechen marketplace and a maternity ward, killing at least 143 persons, according to reports from the region.
Which is to say, Russia is signalling that it intends to do to Tbilsi what it did to Grozny (level it).
Grozny was eventually pounded into rubble.