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Russian-Georgian Conflict Also Has PR Spin

Posted on: Monday, 18 August 2008, 12:05 CDT

The Russian-Georgian conflict is being waged not only by soldiers on the ground but by media experts trying to sway public opinion, observers said.

The war to persuade the world's opinion about events in Georgia has been waged by both Georgian and Russian authorities. Both seek to justify their actions that began nearly two weeks ago when Georgian troops tried to rein in rebels in South Ossetia only to be overwhelmed by Russian forces.

Public relations firms have been hired to help officials from the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and from Moscow sell their versions, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday.

"From Georgian sources and reporters based in Georgian-controlled territory, the story of a relentlessly vicious Russian attack against an isolated government emerged," Hudson Institute analysts Zeyno Baran and Emmet Tuohy wrote in an article published by National Review Online, "only to be matched by a story emerging on the other side of the front line of a steady campaign against a barbaric, genocidal regime ... ."

Russian accusations of Georgian genocide haven't been borne out, a human rights group said. Moscow said it undertook military actions by asserting that the conflict began when Georgian troops killed 2,000 South Ossetian civilians.

But when Human Rights Watch researchers talked to doctors at Tskhinvali Regional Hospital in South Ossetia, they were told that most of those killed there were brought to the hospital, and the death toll was 44, which included combatants and civilians.

Russian leaders later said HRW is based in the United States, an ally of Georgia.

Source: United Press International

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