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Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, “Introduction,” in The Guns of August 2008: Russia’s War in Georgia, eds. Cornell and Starr, 9.

15.

Cornell and Starr, “Introduction.”

16.

Jonathan Littell, “Carnet de route,” Le Monde 2 (October 4, 2008), 18. This version of the facts was confirmed in a testimony before Congress, made by Dan Fried, at that time Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, who said the Georgians “believed at the time—that they thought the Russian forces were coming through the Roki tunnel (linking Russia with South Ossetia) and they were in imminent danger.” (Daniel Dombey, “Congress Attacks Stance on Georgia,” Financial Times (September 11, 2008).)

17.

Quoted by Malek, “Georgia & Russia: The ‘Unkown’ Prelude to the ‘Five Day War.’”

18.

Quoted in “Soldaty govoryat, chto pribyli v Yuzhnuyu Osetiyu eshche 7 Avgusta” (Soldiers Say That They Were Already on August 7 in South Ossetia), Polit.ru, (September 10, 2008). http://www.polit.ru/news/2008/09/10/seven/print/.

19.

“Soldaty govoryat, chto pribyli v Yuzhnuyu Osetiyu eshche 7 Avgusta.”

20.

The article was quoted on the same day by the news agency Newsru.com. The agency concluded: “Thus the captain was on the Southern side of the Caucasus ridge, already on Georgian territory, and saw the shelling of Tskhinvali and the position of the peacekeepers during the night of August 8.” (“SMI: Rossiyskie voyska voshli v Yuzhnuyu Osetiyu eshche do nachala boevykh deystviy,” NEWSru.com (September 11, 2008).)

21.

“S saita ‘Krasnoy Zvezdy’ udaleno intervyu kapitana Sidristogo o vtorzhenii Rossiyskikh voysk v Yu O do napadeniya Gruzii,” NEWSru.com (September 15, 2008).

22.

“S saita ‘Krasnoy Zvezdy’ udaleno intervyu kapitana Sidristogo o vtorzhenii Rossiyskikh voysk v Yu O do napadeniya Gruzii.”

23.

The story of the changed and subsequently removed article in Krasnaya Zvezda raised doubts for even the German magazine Der Spiegel, which after the war published an article extremely critical of Saakashvili (he was called “the choleric ruler of Tbilisi”). “Did Moscow’s deployment start, after all, earlier than it was until now admitted?” asked the authors. (Ralf Beste, Uwe Klussmann, Cordula Meyer, Christian Neef, Matthias Schepp, Hans-Jürgen Schlamp, and Holger Stark, “Wettlauf zum Tunnel,” Der Spiegel no. 38 (September 15, 2008), 132. http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-60135192.html.)

Chapter 15

The War with Georgia, Part III

The Propaganda War

After the opening of the hostilities the Russian propaganda machine immediately swung fully into action, helped by the massive presence in Tskhinvali of the reporters and cameramen from the national TV channels and print media, who had arrived days before the events started. The Russian press agencies began publishing stories of the atrocities supposedly committed by the Georgians against the South Ossetian civil population. A prominent place in these stories was reserved for the accusation that Georgia had committed in South Ossetia a genocide.

Russia Accuses Georgia of Genocide