Russian and Western War Propaganda
PR Rhetoric in Battle for Georgia has Parallels in Modern History
Aug 28, 2008
In August 2008 Russia launched a military offensive against Georgian forces in South Ossetia. Western governments largely condemned the Russian actions, and this led to a bitter rebuke by the Russian government. In the ensuing Public Relations (PR) and propaganda exchange Western governments accused Russia of infringing Georgia's sovereignty, while Russia claimed they were protecting the lives of ethnic-Russians and said that the majority of South Ossetians wanted independence from Georgia. This war or words had a striking parallel with the PR and propaganda battle during Nato's bombing of Serbia in the Kosovo Conflict of 1999; only then it was the West claiming it was protecting the rights of a majority wanting independence, and Russia was claiming a crime against sovereignty.
Declaring Humanitarian Interventions Against Genocide in Kosovo and Georgia
In the spring of 1999 Nato bombed the Serbs of Yugoslavia after diplomatic efforts failed, and a humanitarian crisis in Kosovo was developing. This followed a civil war between a military faction of the ethic-Albanian majority in the autonomous region of Kosovo and a Yugoslav military that mainly consisted of ethic-Serbs under the leadership of President Slobodan Milosevic.
Western military and political leaders, as well as their PR spin doctors, justified their actions by declaring Kosovo a humanitarian disaster area caused by a genocidal Serb military. Russian PR has also defended their military offensive in South Ossetia as being a defensive operation in opposition to a genocidal army: a Georgian army that was deployed by political leaders holding sovereignty over South Ossetia, as the Serb leadership held sovereignty over Kosovo in 1999.
Recognising Sovereignty and Independence in Kosovo and Georgia
The West recognised Kosovo’s independence in 2008, and now Russia has supported the independence of the two Georgian states with a majority of Russian people: South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Most South Ossetians want independence from Georgia so they can join with their fellow Ossetians in North Ossetia, which is a part of Russia.
The BBC reported that Western leaders have criticised the Russian military operation and recognition of independence for the two regions, and this has fuelled fears of a new Cold War between Russia and the West. Russia has become stronger in recent years due its oil money and the weakening of the West under the credit crunch, and this has led to increased friction between the two geopolitical powers that fought an ideological war that lasted at least forty-five years.
Although the Cold War is generally considered to have ended in the early 1990s with the dismantling of the former Soviet Union, Russia has still often been at loggerheads with the West, but its economic weakness meant it had little power. At the end of Nato’s Kosovo campaign in 1999 elements within the Russian military rushed into the province to take Pristina airport ahead of Nato forces, and there were fears of a larger confrontation between East and West for a few days.
After it seems that Russia has lost the Balkans to Nato after the Kosovo War, a resurgent government influenced by Vladimir Putin's strong leadership seems determined to hold on to the Caucuses.
A Return to the Cold War?
Seamus Milne, in the August 28, 2008 Guardian article "Georgia is the Graveyard of America’s Unipolar World", considers that British Foreign Secretary David Miliband's attempt in the Ukraine to “deny the obvious parallels with the US-orchestrated recognition of Kosovo's independence earlier this year rang particularly hollow, as did his denunciation of invasions of sovereign states and double standards.”
Russia has seen its territory eroded and allies switching allegiances over the last two decades, as the West has grown ever closer to its borders following Nato and the European Community's eastern expansion. This, together with US plans for a missile shield using these former Soviet allies' territory has increased paranoia in Russia about Western intentions.
Whether this will be a lasting rift is still unclear, but the tit-for-tat rhetoric that spans a decade suggests it is already a lengthy propaganda and public relations war.
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