[R-G] Who is on the Side of the Angels? (Georgia v. Russia)

[Anthony Fenton]

Who is on the Side of the Angels?
http://www.spinwatch.org/content/view/5153/8/

Andy Rowell, 26 August 2008

Ever since Georgia invaded its break-away province of South Ossetia  
earlier this month, there has been a concerted attempt by both Georgia  
and its allies to portray its subsequent fight with Russia as a  
conflict between “David and Goliath”. Georgia is the small David  
fighting the Goliath of the ruthless Russian army.

Although it seems it retaliated to Russian provocation, it was  
Georgian forces that first moved into South Ossetia, sparking the  
wider conflict. However the predominant way the story has been  
reported in the west is that it is Russia that is the major aggressor.  
It is true that Russia has retaliated against the Georgian incursion  
into Ossetia with brutal, disproportionate force. However, the way  
that Georgia has tried to manipulate the crisis is in itself quite  
remarkable too.

In the great tradition of spinning the truth in military campaigns,  
Georgia may have been comprehensively defeated militarily, but it is  
seen as having won the propaganda war. Little, brave Georgia has taken  
on the nasty Russian Republic.

When the journalist Peter Whilby examined press releases issued by  
Georgia’s PR consultants, he noted that they used deliberate “terms  
that trigger western media interest” in describing the Russian  
actions, such as “civilian victims”, “nuclear”, “humanitarian”,  
“occupation” and “ethnic cleansing.”

The Georgians had also cleverly targeted bankers and analysts on Wall  
Street in New York that had successfully filtered their message onto  
prime time American TV. The effect of this, claims Mark Ames, the  
editor of Moscow's alternative paper The eXile, “was brilliant”. He  
says “now you're starting to see the American media shift its coverage  
from calling it Georgia invading Ossetian territory, to the new spin,  
that it's Russian imperial aggression against tiny little Georgia.”

The propaganda battle between Russia and Georgia has even made the  
front-page of the magazine PR Week in the UK. In the article Georgia’s  
hired PR company, Aspect Consulting attacked Russian “propaganda.”  
Aspect Consulting’s founding partner James Hunt told PR Week how he  
could not understand how the PR companies working for Russia could be  
“comfortable about that.” He said bluntly: “I’m on the side of the  
angels”.

For someone who likes to portray himself on the side of good over  
evil, Hunt has had a controversial career. He has defended some of the  
biggest companies during three of the biggest environmental and health  
scandals of recent times in the UK. He worked for Shell on the Brent  
Spar debacle in the mid-nineties, when Shell attempted to recklessly  
dump its redundant oil platform in the Atlantic. A hugely successful  
public campaign by the environmental organization Greenpeace forced  
the oil giant to dispose of the Brent Spar on land. It also forced  
Shell into a comprehensive review of its environmental policies and  
practices.

Hunt also worked for the global fast-food giant McDonalds over what  
was known as “mad cow disease” in the mid-nineties as well as working  
with biotechnology seed companies over their promotion of genetically- 
modified crops, despite known health and ecological risks that those  
crops entail. Aspect’s current clients still include biotechnology  
companies such as Novartis and Exxon Mobil, the global oil company  
that has been at the forefront of action to deny climate change. Many  
would see his career as dancing with the devil, not flying with the  
angels.

Aspect started working with Georgia last year to assist the country  
become part of both the EU and Nato. The agency was reportedly paid  
some $750,000 to promote the Georgian cause. The agency has been  
trying to spin the truth over what happened, arguing that it was not  
Georgia that started the war, and that the war was “about punishing  
Georgia for wanting to pursue an Euro-Atlantic future”.

Whilst there must be elements of this, the first major act of  
aggression was on Georgia’s behalf against the people of South  
Ossetia, although there are reports that Russia was trying to provoke  
a Georgian attack. Moreover in that conflict, Georgia – a population  
of 4.4 million, with a military equipped by the Americans and Israelis  
- was far superior to the South Ossetians, who have a population of  
around 60,000. Initial reports coming out of South Ossetia talk of a  
ferocious assault by the Georgians in the capital city, Tskhinvali.  
There were reports of some 2,000 Ossetians killed, including woman and  
children sheltering in bomb shelters.

There is also evidence that the Georgians would not have attacked  
South Ossetia without American military and logistical support. There  
are certainly close connections between the Georgians and US neo- 
conservatives.  One of Georgia’s top lobbyists in the last few years  
has been Randy Scheunemann, who recently became the Republican  
presidential candidate John McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser.

Scheunemann was one of the key neo-conservative pushing for the Iraq  
war when he was a project director at the Project for a New American  
Century. Scheunemann also headed the Committee for the Liberation of  
Iraq, which also called for a US invasion of Iraq.

Scheunemann has a history of working with McCain on the Georgian  
issue. In 2005, when he was a registered lobbyist for Georgia,  
Scheunemann worked with McCain to draft a resolution in the US  
Congress that called got Georgia’s membership in NATO. The following  
year, Scheunemann accompanied McCain on a trip to Georgia. During the  
trip, McCain denounced the South Ossetian separatists, and speaking at  
the military base at Senaki, he declared that Georgia was America's  
“best friend.” McCain also added that Russian peace-keepers in the  
region should be thrown out.

By April this year, Scheunemann had formally ceased his own lobbying  
work for Georgia. However the same day that McCain phoned the  
president of Georgia offering support for the country, a lobbying  
firm, called Orion Strategies that is partly owned by Scheunemann,  
signed a $200,000 contract to continue providing strategic advice to  
the Georgian government in Washington.

A Month later, Scheunemann was forced to distance himself from the  
firm, but despite this the Washington Post notes “For months while  
McCain's presidential campaign was gearing up, Scheunemann held dual  
roles, advising the candidate on foreign policy while working as  
Georgia's lobbyist. Between January 1, 2007, and May 15, 2008, the  
campaign paid Scheunemann nearly $70,000 to provide foreign policy  
advice. During the same period, the government of Georgia paid his  
firm $290,000 in lobbying fees.”

Having political advisors who are also paid lobbyists for a foreign  
country obviously raises serious conflicts of interest that the McCain  
team has hardly dealt with by forcing Scheunemann to break his formal  
ties with the Georgians.

We should not forget how strategic Georgia is to the West because of  
oil. Although Georgia has no significant oil reserves of its own, it  
is a key transit point for oil from the Caspian and central Asia  
destined for the thirsty markets of Europe and the US. The 1,770km  
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline pumps up to 1 million barrels of oil per  
day from Baku in Azerbaijan to Turkey. The pipeline route was  
specifically designed to avoid Russia, running in part through Georgia  
instead.

Russia does not escape blame in the conflict either. Last week, the  
Independent newspaper quoted a senior Russian military analyst saying  
that Russia tried to provoke a conflict to “prevent Georgia from  
joining Nato.” Russia has also been using PR companies to spin its  
message. The country uses two agencies that form part of the global  
giant Omnicom company. GPlus in Brussels and Ketchum in Washington.

GPlus and Ketchum were first hired by the Kremlin to cover Russia’s  
presidency of the G8. Gplus has received significant criticism for  
handling the Russian account including during the current conflict.   
GPlus argues that all it does for the Russians is “give them  
logistical support to assist spokespeople with handling the European  
media.” But their Georgian PR opponents have said that the PR  
companies acting for the Russians have been “misleading foreign  
journalists” and pumping out Russian Government propaganda.

However what we do know is that both sides are using propaganda and  
both sides have used indiscriminate force against civilians, which in  
itself is a war crime. The respected organization Human Rights Watch  
reported last week that there was “mounting evidence” that both the  
Russian and Georgian military had “used armed force unlawfully during  
the South Ossetian conflict.” According to Human Rights Watch, both  
sides had used “indiscriminate force against civilians.”

  What we know is that in war, the situation is hardly ever black and  
white. The truth gets trampled on both sides, as they both issue  
propaganda to suit their own ends. It will be the innocent civilians  
who suffer, who will be bombed, killed, injured, terrorized, made  
homeless and starving. It will be the innocent who look for their  
loved ones in the burnt out buildings, over-stretched hospitals and  
over-flowing morgues. As the innocent die on both sides, no one can  
claim to be on the side of the angels.

Because there are no angels in war.