The Boston Marathon bombings seem to have provided one Kremlin-friendly Russian media outlet with an opportunity to take a jab at a prominent American critic of Russian policies in the South Caucasus and at Georgia, a key regional US partner and longtime Russian foe.
Russia’s major newspaper Izvestia alleged on April 24 that Tamerlan Tsarnayev, the assumed Boston bombing mastermind, had "cooperated" with Tbilisi's Caucasus Foundation, a non-governmental organization, prior to a series of seminars for young people supposedly co-staged in Tbilisi last summer with the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, DC-based think-tank.
The Caucasus Foundation, which has held events covering the mistreatment of North Caucasus ethnic groups under Tsarist Russian and Soviet rule, describes its mission as promoting peace and cooperation among Caucasus peoples via cultural and sports events.
But to hear Izvestia tell it, its seminars were, in fact, meant to foster instability in Russia’s restive North Caucasus.
Such allegations fit with the Kremlin’s old line of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili making trouble in the North Caucasus for Russia -- a charge not always dismissed in Tbilisi.
The paper reported that its claims are based on supposed Georgian interior ministry documents, which reporter Anastasia Koshevarova told Ekho Kavkaza were obtained via "my longtime acquaintances connected to the intelligence services of Abkhazia, Abashidze [?], South Ossetia, and to the Russian intelligence service."
She added that it was "under question" whether or not Tsarnayev had traveled to Tbilisi from Russia's Daghestan, where he was visiting family last summer, for the supposed seminars.
The implication that the two foundations were somehow linked, albeit remotely, to the Boston tragedy may come off as a bit of a stretch, even coming from the conspiracy-theory-minded Russian press, but it was enough to put Georgia on guard, with denials coming thick and fast.
Izvestia based its allegations on a supposed report to Georgian Interior Minister Irakli Gharibashvili by a certain Giorgi Chanturia, identified by the newspaper as a counter-intelligence official at the ministry.
The Georgian interior ministry came out to say that it has never had an employee called Giorgi Chanturia, while the Caucasus Foundation was quick to describe the allegations as slanderous nonsense.
In an interview with Novaya Gazeta, a former vice-president of the Caucasus Foundation, Gela Khmaladze, denied that any seminars had ever been held with the Jamestown Foundation or in the summer of 2012.
A Jamestown Foundation representative told EurasiaNet.org that the allegations were "entirely false."
Izvestia on April 25 ran a second story, which says that participants confirm the events took place, though none of those quoted in the story corroborate any of the paper's other claims. Instead of providing evidence, the story discusses how the Jamestown Foundation, known for its criticism of the Kremlin, has been a pet peeve for Moscow.
The Izvestia story may be short on evidence, and big on sensationalism, but perhaps if they throw enough mud, some of it may indeed stick with local audiences; particularly those with an appetite for conspiracy theories.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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