ISIS, Ukraine, Georgia: In Putin's world, it is all connected

Let’s look at recent chronology and see what it yields, prima facie, about the Kremlin’s coordination:

Now for most Westerners this switching between countries causes the mind to swim so they switch off instead. (Ukraine and Georgia at the same time, but aren’t they different countries?) The Kremlin knows this full well from years of post-Soviet impunity. Distraction and disinformation surround every action, not least for Russian domestic consumption. The next incident, the horrific ISIS bombing of the Russian tourists’ aircraft, instantly triggered a sudden spike in renewed attacks by pro-Russians on the Ukrainian front. This happened, in tandem with a blizzard of Russian media speculation about how the CIA was possibly complicit in the atrocity, or even Britain’s M16.

Drill down a little more and you get a fascinating education in how deliberately Moscow’s propaganda machine works. Having arrived at an impasse in Ukraine under pressure from global sanctions, Putin moved onto Syria. Distraction—then disinformation. On the eve of Ukrainian local elections, reports of a Saakashvili phone conversation advocating violent revolution in Georgia appears all over Georgian media. The source, they claim, is Wikileaks Ukraine. Keep in mind that a pro-Saakashvili candidate is running for mayor in Odessa against a pro-Russian candidate (who won). The Ukrainian local elections matter to Moscow. But the leak is first funneled through Georgia with the apparently legitimizing tag of Wikileaks Ukraine, thereby imitating the democratic grass-roots voice of Euromaidan truth-telling. Therefore everyone initially thinks it has to be believable.

The post later turns out to originate physically from an IP address in Russia. But in the meantime the damage is done. The leak says Saakashvili is advocating physical resistance against the Georgian government’s assault on the independent TV station. True enough. But it says more. It says he’s trying to provoke confrontation in Tblisi order to overthrow the Georgian Dream government. Above all, a truly slimy thread runs through the leak in which Saakashvili seems to embrace the prospect of children being hurt as a way to enhance the provocation.

 

(Forbes.com)