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Both these operations were heralded in the West as a little-guy struggle helped by a big brother. A huge public relations job justified their actions. Now the opposite is happening. A sustained PR job is turning public opinion in favor of Mikheil Saakashvili – the reckless Georgian elected strongman. He is to be blamed for starting the present trouble.
This territorial dispute is a result of the break-up of the Soviet Union. In 1991, every district and every province of the USSR decided to go independent. Georgia was one of them. Within Georgia, South Ossetia was another. This underbelly of Russia was a priority in U.S. strategic planning, mainly due to its landlocked strategic location and as a possible route for bringing oil from the Caspian Sea region to the West.
The Georgians, not fully aware of U.S. intentions, were helping the United States enlarge its influence when they elected Saakashvili, a U.S.-trained lawyer, president in 2004. Russian did not like it, but did nothing.
While Georgians were strengthening their anti-Russia stance, a small and sparsely populated district within Georgia was seeking Russian aid to secede from Georgia. Their logic: if Georgia can secede from Russia, then they could secede from Georgia. The United States had actually given the same opportunity to multiple ethnicities in Yugoslavia.
Trouble had begun in 1991, but it was not a major shooting war between Georgia and its district of South Ossetia. Russia was forced to keep the two warring sides apart by posting peacekeepers, a few hundred lightly armed troops, which have remained in the region since the 1990s. Georgians plotted to eject the Russian peacekeepers and asked for U.S. and Israeli military aid. The belligerent Mikheil Saakashvili ordered his troops to seize South Ossetia during the Beijing Olympics – a big error in judgment. That is where everything went wrong.
The invading Georgians burned homes and apartment buildings and killed hundreds of civilians as well as Russian peacekeepers. Russians troops, who had better intelligence in Georgia, were watching and took this as an opportunity to teach the Georgians a lesson. Their response was massive, reminiscent of Russia’s moves into Afghanistan in 1970, Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.
That is when the West’s public relations fun began. The Georgian attack on Ossetian separatists began a day before the Olympics opened. The Western press at that time was fully focused on Beijing. They did not know how to react when the news of fighting in Georgia broke. Only minor reports of fighting between Georgians and Ossetian separatists were reported.
Two days later everything changed, when Russia entered the battle. The United States swung into action in a typical style, very reminiscent of Cold War days.
The first two days of battle on the ground were hardly reported because of the hoopla in Beijing. U.S. President George W. Bush in Beijing was not fully briefed. Then two days later he advised the Russians to cease shooting and withdraw. Saakashvili in the meantime, all dressed up in an U.S.-made suit, was giving interviews to U.S. media about the terrible Russians trying to swallow a little guy.
The initial reaction in all Western capitals was that Russia should cease its operations. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France was picked to head to Moscow to persuade the Russians to end their actions. Sarkozy was in Moscow on Aug. 12th. Although he negotiated a ceasefire, he got no guarantee that the Russians would end their move into Georgia proper after they had expelled the Georgians from South Ossetia. It was from him that other Western leaders, including Bush, learned that Russia had stiffened its attitude and had other reasons to stay in force in Georgia.
Now began the public relations job to portray the Russians as bad guys. Not to be outdone, even the Russians hired a PR firm in Brussels to sell their story in the West. But they were no match for the Americans, who were coordinating a Cold War-type media attack on the Russians.
Saakashvili was asked to give as many interviews to major Western media as possible. Time and again the same story was told: Russia is beating up a little guy. Then, in a PR coup, Saakashvili signed the ceasefire agreement negotiated by the French without even seeing it. PR men used this as a trump card to scream at Russia for its belligerence.
Bush, back in the White House by July 12, got feedback from the French and his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. His statement on TV was the cue for the media to go into action. Then the anti-Russia headlines began, and electronic media had continuous coverage of events on the ground.
Veteran reporters from Iraq and Afghanistan were chasing every Russian armored personnel carrier and tank in Georgia. Georgian people standing with placards “Russians Go Home” were photographed a million times. Even the two U.S. presidential candidates got into the act, one of them mildly, the other strongly.
The reporters never mentioned that Georgians had destroyed civilian property. Analysts failed to mention that making South Ossetia a part of Georgia was a historical mistake during Joseph Stalin’s time, early last century. Stalin detached South Ossetia from the rest and attached it to Georgia as a punishment to the Persian-speaking populace for opposing the communists. The present war could have been avoided if this mistake had been recognized.
There has been little military action after the first three days of battle. The Russians are dismantling whatever military structure they found, including in the city of Gori which is not in South Ossetia, before withdrawing. But to keep the subject on Russian occupation, stories of atrocities are still being told.
The Russians have hired PR people in Brussels and are trying to paint themselves as honest brokers – though their role has been far different. Georgia is portraying itself as a little guy fending off a big bear – forgetting to mention that it is the culprit. The United States, which initially reacted to protect a little guy, has switched into East-West Cold War-scenario mode – and is succeeding very well. The Americans are having a field day projecting the Russians as a new incarnation of the now defunct Soviet Union.
The PR job of portraying the Russians in a bad light is in full swing. For the last few days, hardly any reports of fighting in Iraq or even the deaths of French and Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan have received as much attention. The reporters broadcasting live from Georgia are doing a fine job.
In the meantime, the Russians are hoping for a miracle. They are hoping that trouble elsewhere will come to their rescue and deflect all the unwanted attention from Georgia.
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(Hari Sud is a retired vice president of C-I-L Inc., a former investment strategies analyst and international relations manager. A graduate of Punjab University and the University of Missouri, he has lived in Canada for the past 34 years. ©Copyright Hari Sud.)
