"Georgia started the August War" and other disinformation narratives in GD's pre-election campaign
Date: 2 October 2024
The Georgian Elections Observatory (GEO) is a short-term initiative focused on fact-checking pre-election narratives leading up to the crucial parliamentary elections on October 26. What sets this project apart from traditional fact-checking platforms is that it doesn't just address specific claims but examines entire narratives, offering political analysis alongside fact-checking and media analysis. This project is powered by the Fojo Swedish Media Institute in partnership with Investigative Media Lab (IML) and the UG Security, Politicy, & Nationalism Research Center (UGSPN).
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect those of the listed organizations.
MEDIA ANALYSIS
"Georgia Started the War"
On August 14, the Political Council of Georgian Dream issued a statement, declaring:
“We cannot forget that the National Movement was the first to acknowledge the start of the August 2008 war by signing the European Council resolution and subsequently agreeing to the Tagliavini report, which described Russia’s military intervention as a retaliatory and legally justified action.”
Shortly after, on September 15, the same narrative was echoed by the pro-government media outlet POSTV, which reported:
“On behalf of the National Movement, the beginning of the August 2008 war was recognized and signed by Giorgi Kandelaki, Chiora Taktakishvili, Giorgi Gabashvili, Giorgi Targamadze, and Akaki Minashvili.”
This narrative was reiterated by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze during a briefing on September 17, where he stated:
“The war was started by Saakashvili’s regime, a fact later acknowledged by the leaders of his government. You are likely familiar with the Council of Europe resolution, which clearly states that the Saakashvili regime initiated large-scale hostilities on August 7. It goes on to explain that this was followed by a retaliatory attack by Russia.”
A similar claim was made by the leader of the ruling party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, in Kvemo Kartli on September 19 during a pre-election speech:
“The 2008 war was started by the nationalists under external orders. Yet, none of them even attempted to justify themselves.”
On the anniversary of the fall of Sokhumi, Prime Minister Kobakhidze echoed these sentiments, stating:
“In 2008, the Saakashvili regime started the war, a fact later confirmed when they signed the European Council resolution. The resolution explicitly states that the Russian Federation responded to the Saakashvili regime’s attack with a counterattack. How, then, is Russia not guilty of the war? It occupied our territories, but the Saakashvili regime initiated the conflict.”
In fact, the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe does not assign blame to either side for starting the war. In the eighth paragraph, which addresses the outbreak of the war, it states:
“The Assembly believes that truth is a precondition for reconciliation. Since the facts surrounding the outbreak of the war are disputed by both Georgia and Russia, they should be established, in an objective manner, by an independent international investigation. The Georgian authorities have indicated that they would welcome such an international inquiry and the Russian members of parliament have also indicated that they would not object to this proposal. This investigation should not be limited to the outbreak of the war, but should also focus on the years leading up to the conflict.”
The part of the resolution that the official media presents as an acknowledgment of Georgia starting the war in fact only refers to the transition to the full-scale escalation of the conflict. Paragraphs 4 and 5 of the resolution clarify that the war was preceded by significant escalation, as well as a deterioration in the security situation, and that the use of military force became one possible scenario for the parties involved.
The resolution of the Council of Europe not only denies that Georgia was responsible for starting the war, but it is also one of the first international documents to strongly condemn the recognition of the occupied territories. It refers to the Kremlin’s actions as an occupation and highlights Russia’s failure to prevent ethnic cleansing in areas effectively controlled by its military forces. It is also worth noting that during the final vote on the document, the Russian delegation voted against it, as the accusations it contained were unacceptable to them.
The resolution does not state that Georgia started the war. Therefore, the claims made by Irakli Kobakhidze and other leaders of the ruling party based on this resolution, suggesting that Georgia initiated the 2008 war and that the current government has admitted this, do not align with reality. These statements represent a disinformation narrative that distorts the actual content and context of the document.
Political Manipulation of the August 2008 War’s Start Date
On the sixteenth anniversary of the August War, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze visited Mukhatgverdi cemetery on August 8, instead of August 7, and remarked:
“I don’t think these speculations about the date are serious. You will remember that our political opponents marked this date on August 8 for years, and then, after some time, they decided that August 7 was the actual start of the war. These are baseless speculations, meant only to create division within society.”
Additionally, the ruling party issued a statement on August 7, accusing the previous government of artificially changing the war’s start date:
“The National Movement designated August 8 as the start of the war, and their official commemorations were held on that day. A few years ago, however, the radical opposition decided to change the date, declaring August 7 as the beginning of the war.”
It should be noted that other members of the ruling party, along with their supporters, still consider August 8 as the start date of the war.
In fact, the Georgian government at that time initially recognized August 7 as the start date of the war. This was confirmed by the commemoration event held in August 2009, which marked the anniversary of the war’s beginning and took place on August 7.
Additionally, on August 6, 2009, in connection with the anniversary of the August War, the Georgian authorities published a report detailing the events at the onset of the conflict. The report states that on the morning of August 7, at 03:41, approximately 150 Russian armored vehicles and military trucks entered Georgian territory through the Roki Tunnel. In response, the Georgian armed forces opened artillery fire later that same day, at 23:50, under the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Therefore, the official position of the Georgian government regarding the start date of the war has consistently been August 7, corresponding to the entry of Russian military forces through the Roki Tunnel into Georgian territory. It is also important to note that during his time in office, former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili held anniversary events commemorating the war on August 7.
Moreover, paragraph 4 of the European Council resolution clearly states that the war began on August 7, 2008. However, it also notes that this was “the result of a serious escalation of tension, with provocations and ensuing deterioration of the security situation, which had started much earlier.”
Naming August 8 as the start date of the war aligns with Russian propaganda, as Russia does not acknowledge its entry into Georgian territory on August 7. Instead, it claims that it only began a “counterattack” after Georgia's “invasion” of South Ossetia on August 8.
False Claims About US Support in the August 2008 War
Pro-Russian groups and supporters of the ruling party have been spreading the false narrative that the United States only aided Georgia with “water and diapers” during the August 2008 war.
On August 15, Goga Khaindrava, a film director and supporter of Georgian Dream, echoed this disinformation, stating:
“Society should understand that America and NATO trained the Georgian army to use it for their own security purposes. That’s why they first deployed it in various missions, and then, in 2008, during the war that was provoked, they abandoned a humanitarian water deposit.”
In reality, the United States was the first to take significant steps to assist Georgia during the conflict. On August 9, the US assisted Georgia by transporting more than 800 soldiers and eleven tons of cargo from Iraq back to Georgia. Furthermore:
1. On August 13, US President George W. Bush announced that the United States was launching a humanitarian mission to aid Georgia, utilizing US air and naval forces. The primary objective of this plan was to protect Tbilisi Airport and seaports from further Russian attacks;
2. As part of the humanitarian mission, several ships arrived in Georgia, including the USS Arleigh Burke, equipped with RIM-67 Standard ER (SM-1ER/SM-2ER) missile launchers and Harpoon missiles, the USS Mount Whitney (LCC/JCC 20) from the Blue Ridge class, and the Hamilton-class Coast Guard cutter USCGC Dallas (WHEC-716);
3. The United States was the first country to announce immediate financial support for Georgia, which was soon followed by $750 million in aid from the International Monetary Fund. Additionally, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) allocated $250,000 for emergency assistance to help approximately 10,000 people affected by the conflict;
4. On August 12, the first UN humanitarian mission delivered thirty-four tonnes of aid to Georgia. The EU also activated its civil protection mechanism, through which eleven European countries provided food, medical supplies, blankets, and shelter. Spain contributed €500,000 to assist the displaced, while the Latvian government sent medical supplies worth 20,000 lats;
5. On August 14, Estonia sent €250,000 worth of humanitarian aid and medical personnel. Alongside this aid, they also dispatched computer technology experts to assist Georgian specialists with the security of their electronic communications.
Thus, the narrative that the West only provided Georgia with water and diapers is again false and part of a broader Russian disinformation campaign.
POLITICAL ANALYSIS
The Utility of War-Fear Manipulation
If we look at the process of meta-narrative formation by Georgian Dream (GD)—which, in a nutshell, can be framed as “without us (GD) in power, there will be war in Georgia”—it becomes strikingly evident how structurally well-developed the GD information campaign is, with its messages and contextual focuses uniquely serving a particular target group (audience). Starting with the general claim that all competing political parties will push Georgia onto a path to war, the logic of their argumentation continues with attributing the risk of war to a mythical “global war party,” which is supposedly difficult to attribute to a particular country or institution, but is powerful enough to shape the global policy of the West. Consequently, Georgia’s wish to join the EU and other Western institution is presented as an act of Georgian good will, in which no general conditions of membership will apply to the country: that is, Georgia will join the EU only with “dignity.” If this is not possible and the EU insists on enforcing its rules, then Georgia, according to GD, will choose to preserve its “dignity,” refuse the membership, and maintain a strategic balancing position between major powers including the West, Russia, and China. In this way, the “war versus peace” narrative turns into an effective “information trident,” with which the triggered psychological fear of war is accompanied by the political promise of future membership in EU and NATO, and the invocation of “practical benefits or losses” to be compensated if necessary, via strategic non-alignment. From this perspective, the GD approach—while not perfect—truly appears the best available, better than anything offered before.
Despite the fact that GD's fear-mongering efforts slowly came to public attention immediately after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it only became evident in late 2023 and early 2024that GD had failed in pushing its previously chosen primary message of anti-LGBT propaganda: as a result, it quickly jumped on war-fear messaging by significantly intensifying its information campaign. This can partly be attributed to the failed efforts by Georgian Dream to sabotage Georgia’s EU candidacy status by not implementing the Charles Michel plan (and the respective nine steps outlined by the Commission), along with the European Union’s decision to grant candidate status. It appears that GD was looking for a much “stronger”move that would, on the one hand, significantly alienate the EU, thereby effectively blocking the country’s membership negotiations; on the other hand, any such move had to provide a formal justification of noncompliance for the domestic audience and create the twin psychological and political dilemma of “no to GD means war” for the upcoming parliamentary elections. This move was found when the ruling party introduced the so-called Russian Law (officially the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence), which saw the vast majority of public organizations and NGOs labeled as foreign agents, receiving foreign financing and pushing for the supposed Western agenda of opening a second front: that is, starting war against Russia.
It is evident that there is no other topic left powerful enough to capitalize upon and mobilize support. GD abandoned all the other issue areas on which political parties typically focus to formulate their electoral programs and promises. From the perspective of rationality, the GD decision can be justified, since the party has nothing to present to the electorate and no serious achievements to be proud of. Therefore, due to the significant decline in GD’s popularity since the adoption of the Russian Law, the persistent popular belief that joining the EU is a necessity, and the fact that any other (economic, social, etc.) electoral topic could be very damaging to GD itself, the “preservation of peace” message remains the only one that can potentially dominate and trump all the others. This assumption appears even more convincing as, much like Russian propaganda, the GD information campaign relies heavily on half-truths, manipulation of facts, and simple wordings that leave strong psychological imprints and affect basic perceptions. For instance claims that a “global war party” is the major culprit (not Russia) in starting the war in Ukraine finds a fertile ground in Georgia and is further pushed by GD, as it points to the West and its inability to provide enough military support to defeat Russia, alongside its unwillingness to accept Ukraine and Georgia into NATO to prevent and stop Russian aggression, as clear evidence of Western weakness, manipulation of Ukraine, and intention to keep the war going.