Georgia, West and Russia in information war

en.fondsk.ruÐ?rbis Terrarum
21.12.2008
Nikolai DIMLEVICH

As the military confrontation in the Caucasus stopped after the tragedy
in South Ossetia in early August, the information war between the
opposing sides has only stirred up. The West is still trapped in
stereotypes about Russia`s policy in Georgia: the world sees Russia as
Georgia`s enemy and aggressor, trying to violate sovereignty and
territorial integrity of the neighboring state.

With start of the war in South Ossetia, the West and Georgia launched a
large-scale information and propaganda campaign, using any means and
resources to impose their view of the conflict. On 9 August at the
decree of President Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia`s Security Council
banned the broadcasting of all Russian TV and radio channels and cut
off access to Russian Internet domains. The people of Georgia found
themselves in an information blockade: all TV and radio broadcasters
offered only an official stance of the Georgian leadership and true
coverage of the events.

Reference: Georgia banned RTVi channel owned by Vladimir Gusinsky. RTVi
had been the only Russian-language source of information in Georgia.
The RTVi was banned from broadcasting after it demonstrated an
interview with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticizing
Georgia`s actions in South Ossetia.

Since the very beginning of the military campaign on 7 August, a
press-center in Tbilisi was used by Saakashvili and other high-ranking
officials as a platform for brainwashing and propaganda. The leading
western TV channels showed Mr. Saakashvili addressing the nation in
order to warn about the oncoming threat from Russia.

Georgia’s media and the leading information outlets in the West had
been enjoying close cooperation- the fact that also contributed greatly
to the success of their propaganda. Saakashvili hired professional PR
managers and thus got an access not only to the `Russia Today’ but also
CNN, BBC, Sky News, Bloomberg and many other channels. During the first
five hours of the attack on Tskhinvali, Saakashvili appeared on TV for
20 times, while the journalists received about 200 press releases. As a
result, many channels did not send their people to Tskhinvali and
relied on the information from Tbilisi. The parliament of Georgia
regularly informed the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (PA) about `Russia’s
aggressive and inadequate actions, including its attacks on the
Georgian civil infrastructure, settlements and ports. Thus, on 11
August, after the President of the PA voiced his view on the situation
in Georgia, the PA vice president and the head of the German delegation
Karl Lamers supported an anti-Russian declaration suggested by a US
congressman J. Tanner, citing `reliable information sources in
Georgia’.

In this information war the Internet played a very active role ever.
BEFORE the military invasion began on 7 August, the Georgian
authorities had signed contracts with the western PR agencies
(including the one in Belgium), while Georgia`s Interior Ministry
officials were asked to prepare a video footage featuring the citizens
of Gori, Marneuli, Poti, Senaki and Zugdidi, testifying in Russian
about `atrocities of the Russian occupants and large-scale air attacks
on the Georgian cities’. These materials were due to be presented at
the International Criminal Court.

Now let us see how the military campaign in South Ossetia was covered
in the information outlets of the Georgian diaspora in Russia.

Since 1993 to 2008 in Russia there were registered 12 printed media
connected with the Georgian diaspora, 10 of which were Moscow-based
`Evening Tbilisi’, `Georgia’ and `Moscow-Tbilisi’ (in Armenian
language); `Georgia`s Revival’, `Multinational Georgia’, `Georgia.
Events. People’, `The new Caucasus newspaper’, `Sunny Mziuri’;
magazines `Bolshaya Gruzinskaya’ and `Tbilisi’. There also were two
outlets in the cities of Nizhny Novgorod (`The Nizhny Novgorod Empire’)
and Samara (`Samshoblo’ newspaper).

The leaders of the Georgian communities in the Voronezh and Saratov
regions critically condemned Saakashvili. The website of the All-Russia
public organization `The Union of Georgians in Russia’ provided regular
information from the conflict zone, and the reports contained the
opinions from both Georgia and Russia. `The Union¦’ urged the opposing
sides to achieve a ceasefire. The prominent cultural figures of
Georgian origin commented on the tragedy. Most of them did not welcome
Russia`s actions in South Ossetia and Georgia. The website of the
Moscow-based Georgian `Youth movement of Lazare’ () also
contained some anti-Russian statements.

***
Unlike Tbilisi with its well-coordinated and active propaganda
campaign, Russia has been engaged in rather defensive tactics. All the
words that violence against the peaceful civilians, murders of the
peacekeepers were nothing but a harsh violation of the international
legislation, and that Russia had to increase its presence in the
conflict zone only to provide assistance to the people of South Ossetia
and Russian citizens and stop the humanitarian catastrophe, came TOO
LATE.

Preoccupied with propaganda among the citizens, Russia paid too little
attention to cooperation with the western media. However, some attempts
were made to inform the colleagues abroad about what had really
happened in Georgia.

Some representatives of the Russian Embassy in US were interviewed by
Wolf Blitzer, who anchors a popular analytical program on CNN. During
the show President Mikhail Saakashvili was reached in Tbilisi to=2
0
comment on the situation once again but in view of the words said by
the Russian guests, his arguments were too weak and he had nothing but
empty accusations. The program was broadcast by the NPR national radio
and the Chile-based `AND’ international radio corporation, available in
19 countries and popular among the Hispanic audience in US. The `US
Today’ published an article revealing the essence of the Russian
operation to force Georgia to peace and the danger of conniving at
Tbilisi`s adventure. `The Washington Times’, `The Wall Street Journal’
and the UPI news agency cited some Russian officials denying Russia’s
involvement in the so-called cyber attacks on the Georgian websites.
Russia`s major ITAR-TASS and RIA News contributed much to the coverage
of the situation in South Ossetia abroad.

The website of the Russian Embassy in US provided a real-time reporting
from the press-conferences in Russia and was sending special
press-releases to more than 200 organizations, including the US
Administration, the Congress, some federal and educational
institutions, research centers, etc.

Guided by the officers from the 58th army, the groups of foreign
journalists visited Tskhinvali. Since 11 August, 86 foreign journalists
visited the conflict zone. The Russian side helped all foreign
journalists, including a CNN group, which arrived in Tskhinvali and
Vladikavkaz from Georgia. However, some TV companies, for example, FOX
NEWS, banned the demonstration of the footages their reporters made in
Tskhinvali.

Each day during the conflict Russia`s Senior Military Officer, Colonel
General Anatoly Nagovitsyn, held briefing session to tell the Russian
and foreign journalists the latest news from South Ossetia.

To repel disinformation, the latest news from the conflict zone reached
both Russia and global media agencies simultaneously as a scrolling
text. Thus, on 9 August, at 11 a.m Moscow time Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov held a briefing session with foreign correspondents. Lavrov`s
article published at the `Financial Times’ website on 13 August,
remained at the top of the most readable issues for 2 days.

All these efforts were not in vain since the American experts became
aware that nothing good would come of the confrontation with Moscow.
`Russia Today’ and `Vesti 24′ saw a sharp increase in ratings then.
Sometimes the programs published by `Russia Today’ on the independent
YouTube web portal were ranked 4th, with BBC reports falling behind on
the 43d position.

Most independent experts believe that Georgia would have never
succeeded in this information war unless active support of the US and
European media. (At the same time experts praise Moscow`s attempts to
control reporting from the conflict zone by holding regular briefing
sessions at the Russian Defense and Foreign Affairs Ministries and
demonstration of videos depicting the deliveries of humanitarian aid to
South Ossetia by the brigades of the Russian Emergency Situations
Ministry.

Russia is still viewed in Europe and overseas as a country with
unpredictable and aggressive foreign and home policies.

Reference: From 2000 to 2008 the world saw 450 issues of `The
Economist’ British magazine. Russia was mentioned on 13 covers, with
only one issue (in 2002) being positive about the country. The latest
cover showed Russian tanks and planes attacking South Ossetia and
Georgia.

Although most of the western media outlets were very negative about
Russia`s actions in the conflict zone, they happened to give quite
ambiguous remarks after traditional pacifist slogans. There were some
exceptions though. The Spanish `El Pais’ called Georgia`s invasion in
Tskhinvali as `tragic and wrong’.

The Georgian authorities paid much more attention to the coverage of
the events in the media, which certainly played a crucial role in
building public opinion. Only Russia`s permanent representative to the
UN Vitaly Churkin dared to comment on the war, though only as part of a
common briefing after the Security Council`s meeting. President
Saakashvili gave dozens of interviews to the leading media outlets,
especially CNN.

Only on 12 August, when western correspondents arrived in Tskhinvali,
the tone of reporting changed20a little bit.

***
The question is whether Moscow has enough means to influence the public
opinion in Georgia and the West? We believe currently Russia lacks an
ability to hold a successful information campaign.

Firstly, Russia yields to the West in terms of information outlets:
today we do not have any mass media that could be acknowledged as
authoritative in the West. The `Russian Profile’ magazine and `Russia
Today’ TV channel is not enough.

Reference: `Russia Today’ finds it hard to win the audience in most
Western countries, and currently the channel is popular only among
Russian political experts, students, teachers and some business
circles. Most of the Americans believe `RT’ is the source of Kremlin
propaganda. Apart from this, the channel has some technical problems
(the lack of prompt reporting and some others).

Secondly, Russia and Europe speak different languages.

Reference: An ordinary European has access to hundreds of cable TV
channels, where two-three are always in the English language. `RT’ is
not in the list and thus cannot win the audience there. As a rule,
people in Europe watch news blocks in their native languages, not in
English.

Still, Russia has everything to continue its fight for its place in
global media resources, especially since a shortage of objective
reporting on the Russia-Georgia conflict remains.

The internat
ional community yet has not been presented any official
document with the chronology of events since 8 August. Despite the
declared intentions to issue Georgia for the damage, the courts of
Russia and the Republic of South Ossetia yet have not done this. In the
meantime, Tbilisi has opened a case against Russia for `ethnic
cleansings in the period of 1993-2008′. Georgia continues to receive
active financial support from abroad.

To win audience in Georgia and the West, Russian leading TV channels
(First, RTR-planet, Vesti 24, NTV and TVC) should use scrolling text in
English during the news blocks.

`The Voice of Russia’ state radio company, launched in 1929 and
currently broadcasting in 38 languages, has increased the number of its
short-wave and mid-wave transmitters and is now available in Georgia
for 14 hours running. The VOR turned on its seven transmitters located
in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Krasnodar and Samara. The VOR`s programs
are being rebroadcast in the Russian language in the capital of
Abkhazia on 107,9 FM (running time from 6 to 10 hours every day). Since
8 August the VOR`s `Commonwealth’ broadcasting service (for the CIS and
the Baltic states) has been working under 24-hour regime and was also
available in the Internet.

On 13 August `Vesti FM’ launched its broadcasting in Tskhinvali on
ultra short and middle waves. The first `Mayak’ call signals were heard
on 14 August. The `Rossiyskaya Gazeta’ presented its first special
issue.

***
Having analyzed the outcomes of the large-scale information
confrontation over the Russia-Georgia conflict, we can say Russia was
not ready to provide prompt reaction to Georgia’s propaganda due to the
lack of necessary state support to the Russian media outlets. The lack
of personnel and harmful money-saving measures lead to heavy political
consequences.