by Ravi Embar

Created on: October 31, 2008   Last Updated: November 16, 2010

Has the US media presented a fair and accurate portrayal of the Georgia/Russia conflict?

No, unfortunately the reporting was mostly biased against aggression by Russia and ignored the aggression by Georgia in South Ossetia.

The Western countries and multilateral organizations such as the UN, EU, NATO have established a precedent of allowing independence movements to aspire to, apply for and attain independence. The Balkanized former provinces of Yugoslavia (Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo) gained their independence with varying degrees of difficulty. In Asia, the UN oversaw the independence of East Timor from Indonesia but so far has not given the nod of approval to the Tamil state of Eilam to separate from Sri Lanka. In Africa, Eritrea became independent of Ethiopia and Somalia is more or less two separate states.

In the case of the former Soviet Union, the former republics amicably decided to break up into separate nations. Russia and Georgia were two of the former Soviet republics who attained their independence at the same time. As with other former Soviet republics, Georgia still had Russian citizens living in appreciable numbers and they were mostly concentrated in two regions South Ossetia (North Ossetia is part of Russia) and Abkhazia.

The Russians, living in Abkhazia and South Ossetia form the overwhelming majority of the population, wanted to reunite with their Russian motherland. The Georgian government views these two regions as indisputably Georgian territory. There already had been sporadic unrest in Abkhazia which unilaterally decided to declare itself independent of Georgia. With the backing of Russia, the Abkhazians have continued to remain a semi-autonomous region of Georgia. South Ossetian Russians declared their intention to become independent. The Georgian leader, Mikheil Saakashvili who had been pursuing closer ties with EU and the US decided to send the Georgian army into South Ossetia where the army damaged buildings and displaced numerous civilians. The South Ossetians appealed to Russia, which decided to send in its armed forces in force. The Russians occupied South Ossetia and entered into Georgian territory and took over a few strategic towns in Georgia. The Russian forces remained within Georgia until French President Sarkozy's intervention. Russia gradually left Georgia but still maintain a presence in South Ossetia. Russia has since recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Reviewing the US media reporting of the South Ossetian conflict, some anchors were equating the conflict with the Cuban missile crisis from the nineteen-sixties. Other newscasts with the assistance of "experts" discussed the gravity of the situation and the sanctions that Russia could face. A few analysts did make the pertinent observation that since Europe is dependent on Russia natural gas for its energy needs, the former would not agree to sanctions on the latter. This was indeed the case as the EU under the Presidency of France's Sarkozy and Russia came to an agreement on the withdrawal of Russian troops from the undisputed areas of Georgia.

Most of the US media were not wholly correct on the Georgia / Russian conflict but a few analysts and journalists did present a realistic scenario.

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