Georgia: With Shooting Over, the Spin War Rages

As in the fighting that raged between Georgian and Russian and Ossetian forces from August 8 to August 12, this is a war with no rules. But, unlike the lopsided military phase of the conflict, the balance of forces in the propaganda fight is more or less even.

Information blockades on both sides constrain the field of battle. Within Georgia, access to Russian television news and web sites remains blocked. Within Russia, information about the war is so tightly controlled that even Russian journalists in Tskhinvali express genuine befuddlement about why ordinary Georgians would fear Russian troops.

Arguably, the Georgian side has gained the upper hand, helped by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's regular, English-speaking appearances on CNN and the BBC. In an August 20 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov delivered a sharp retort that "the course of history must not depend entirely on what the Georgian president is saying."

In recent days, a local counter-offensive, far removed from the spin doctors in Moscow or Tbilisi, has commenced.

With a cease-fire protocol signed, the image of Russian forces as the sole guarantors of public order in areas affected by the conflict is one Moscow is eager to promote.

At the Karaleti peacekeeping post, two days after Georgian police returned to Gori on August 22, the senior Russian officer argues that his troops are merely doing the job that Georgian police should handle themselves. "The Georgians removed themselves from this process," said the officer, who gave his name as Igor. "They just ran. They abandoned their posts at the start of the bombing of Gori."

"We showed the whole world what good peacekeepers the Georgians are, so, in the end, we just told them,