Independent Newspaper: "It will be the same as in Georgia is you oppose to Russia!”

“How do wars start? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe their own lies reading them in newspapers”. The European radio for Belarus has looked through Russian, Belarusian and European editions and compared the titles of articles about the Georgia-Ossetia war. It does have the right to be called “an information war”. It seemed to us that the most emotional titles could be found in European newspapers rather than in Russian ones. However, it would have been strange if “Moscow Komsomol Memebr” had not named its article “Tshinvali: Children were shot like in a shooting gallery”. The ethics of the title “The Georgian region of the Russian Federation” on gazeta.ru is also disputable. The journalist informs that “Russia has officially announced that the territorial integrity of Georgia is not important anymore”. A threatening title of an article by a journalists from “Independent Newspaper” -  “It will be the same as in Georgia is you oppose to Russia!” - does not differ from the previous titles. According to the journalist, “The lesson taught to Saakashvili makes all CIS member states listen to Moscow rather than to the international community”.

Interestingly, journalists are more resolute than generals making their announcements in “analytical war articles” not to mention politicians. “Let’s defend Tbilisi!” – urges an Italian “Corriere Della Sera”. “Making concessions to Vladimir Putin means we are ready to sacrifice our values in his favour. We will get nothing but poisonous nationalism and the strengthening of Moscow if we retreat” .

Here is one more quotation from the newspaper, it resembles and appeal: “Russia needs to sell its oil and we need the oil. Sometimes it is possible to black-mail the blackmailer. If Europe is more courageous to accept the challenge, it will demonstrate its power. Otherwise, it will die”. So, the journalist from “Independent Newspaper” could have just copied the editorials of “Corriere Della Sera’ and vice versa…

But… “To die for Tbilisi?” – a German "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" poses a skeptical question to politicians. “Putin is not Hitler” – “The Washington Post” “defends” one of the Russian leaders replying to its own article printed a week ago. An expert Robert Kagan compared the Russian attack of Georgia to a Nazi assault of Sudetsk Region in 1938. The former national security advisor of Jimmy Carter Zbignev Bzhezinski said the same thing to the “Time” magazine:  “the course of the Russian leader resembles the course of Stalin and Hitler in the 30s”.

"The Washington Post" is urging “hotheads” to be more careful making conclusions “as it is more complicated that it may seem”: "The fact that Russians were eager to start the fight is evident – but the behaviour of the Georgian President Mihail Saakashvili was unstable and provocative. The United States also contributed to the conflict by supporting Saakashvili and promising that America would protect him”.

A Spanish "El Mundo" gives the floor (and what floor!) to the head of the Russian President’s administration on interregional and cultural relations with foreign countries Modest Kolerov:

"Specialists see nothing strange in the fact that the majority of the Georgian political elite headed by Saakashvili promote the ideology of extreme nationalism embellishing it with European rhetoric just like Saakashvili embellished its relations with the press with an EU flag. However, all this embellishment is just like rice in a black pudding”, - describes the person responsible for the prevention of “orange revolutions” in the Kremlin talking about his Georgian comrade.

A Russian “Kommersant’ teaches journalists to describe wars. “Georgia has had its share of grief in Hora” – says the title of the newspapers’ article. “Everyone is lying” – this is an article about the way Moscow and Tbilisi lie to people: “Yesterday’s comments of Russian soldiers differ from what we witnessed in Hora. The army command refutes having hit inhabited localities”. The edition allows politicians to tell lies on its pages. “Tshinvali was bombed by Russian aircraft” – Saakashvili told it to “Kommersant”. Any other comments on the words of the Georgian President are excessive…

"Can there be forced peace?”  - wonders SB while covering events in South Ossetia. “Georgia has attacked South Ossetia. Russia has interfered in the conflict. It could be discussed for a long time who was the first to open fire but one thing is clear: Ossetins made the right decision when they evacuated their children to Russia…”

Meanwhile, the official Belarusian press can preserve its “neutral” position very well.