HAS GEORGIA WON THE INFORMATION WAR AGAINST RUSSIA IN THE CONTEXT OF THE RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN CONFLICT OF 2008?

Abstract

There has been established and promoted the strong belief in the Georgian public, however also in the international community, that despite significant human, territorial and state loss, as well as psychological damage and failure Georgia experienced as a consequence of the 2008 conflict with Russia, the smaller country gained victory over the bigger one in terms of the information war. There is attempt in the paper to find out if the above-mentioned view has been argumented sufficiently, taking into consideration two major factors: 1. The EU-backed “Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia,” known informally as the “Tagliavini Report”, blaming Georgian former government of Mikheil Saakashvili „to fire the first shot” in the subsequent confrontation; 2. The smaller nation-state syndrome as of the victim in the conflictual interaction with the bigger one, playing important role not only in the Russian-Georgian, but also Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian relations.