Anti-Russia Propaganda Campaign In Caucasus Region

Troops from South Ossetia. FILE IMAGE: Reuters

The ongoing anti-Russia propaganda campaign shows its landscape effectiveness in the Caucasus region. Main directions of the campaign consist of:

• Effective measures to deface the Russian troops’ stationing in territory of the independent and semi-independent states of the South and North Caucasus, like Armenia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia;
• Rumors on the so-adduced negative anti-Caucasian moods and claims among servicemen of other Russian nationalities: Slavs, Tatars, Yakuts etc;
• Promotion of the narrow-minded local nationalism, including its extremists nature.

It is worth to note that the religious factor in the anti-Russian propaganda in the Caucasus region is slowly receding into the background. Earlier the propaganda used to actively exploit the existing differences among ethnic and religious groups living in Russia or former USSR.

SouthFront has already covered the situation in Armenia and Georgia. The recently increased media and ideological pressure from the Western ideologemes can be observed in the Caucasus region, including South Ossetia and North Ossetia. The coordinated media and ideological interference has been implemented to discredit the Kremlin policy over the past few years.

On August 25, “Congress of the Ossetian Nation” is taking place in the city of Tskhinval in Southern Ossetia. The congress reportedly involves representatives of 97 tribes, which would discuss the unification of Ossetians, issues faced by them and other topics. According to some informed sources, the one of the topics, which are being discussed on the sidelines of the congress, is the creation of the united, and possibly independent, Ossetian state. No doubts, most of the congress parties discussing this possibility see such a “state” for sure as a Russian satellite state. Anyway, this possible development means that North Ossetia would have to secede from Russia. Another option is that South Ossetia will become a new region of the Russian Federation. This variant seems to be unacceptable to Moscow because the Russian Federation does not have any additional possibilities to burden additional economic and political expenditures.

The existing contradictions among South Ossetia think tanks and the establishment can be also shown through the following incident. On May 17, 2017 an incident took place in a military base in the village of Dzau. The incident was constituted as an attack of two sergeants on two officers of the military unit deployed. The attackers were of the Ossetian nationality, the officers – of others.

This incident has so far triggered multiple rumors and media speculations. In spite of the situation was caused by unprofessional actions of the officers themselves of the military unit. In military-legal interpretation of this situation, it turns out to be extremely straightforward and flagrant. There was an attack of servicemen on their officers in the region, where had been a hot conflict and the situation is still tense.

For most militaries around the world this is an emergency situation and such attackers will face a severe punishment: from long terms of imprisonment to a death penalty.

The judicial trial over the South Ossetia incident is still ongoing. However, over the past few month, it has caused a media hysteria in the local media. The main cause is the alleged anti-Ossetian (anti-Caucasian) moods among Russian officers of the Russian, Tatar, Chechen, Yakut and other nationalities.

SouthFront has received comments on the situation from several Russian experts aware of the situation in the region. They say unanimously that the South Ossetia situation widely covered by media is only top of the iceberg. Furthermore, the current complicated situation in the region allows various actors to exploit it promoting own interests.