Following Russia’s incursion into Georgia in early August, Russian officials have made numerous false claims about U.S. involvement in the conflict, which are reminiscent of orchestrated Soviet Cold War disinformation campaigns.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in an August 28 interview with CNN that the United States may have “created the conflict deliberately in order to aggravate the situation and create a competitive advantage for one of the candidates for the U.S. presidency.”
As evidence of U.S. involvement, Russian officials showed reporters a copy of the passport of American citizen Michael Lee White, allegedly found in a building in South Ossetia by Russian troops.
But as the Wall Street Journal reported on September 3, White lost his passport in October 2005, when he left it in the seat pocket of an airplane on a Moscow-New York flight. The U.S. State Department confirmed that White reported the passport missing in 2005 and that it was subsequently cancelled.
White told the Wall Street Journal that during the fighting in Georgia, “he was in Austin, Texas, helping to care for his 85-year-old father, who suffered a stroke in the spring.” The Journal reports that “Mr. White’s brother, reached by phone in Austin, confirms that account.” White left Austin on August 27 to return to China, where he works as an English-language teacher.
Russian officials have also falsely accused the United States of sending military assistance to Georgia during the conflict. In fact, U.S. aid to Georgia since the conflict began has been exclusively humanitarian, totaling nearly $38 million. This has included more than 150,000 packaged meals, more than 350,000 humanitarian daily rations, 10,500 cots, almost 20,000 sleeping bags, thousands of blankets, sheets, tents, baby food, bottled water, and other humanitarian supplies.
On September 3, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced a major economic support package of more than one billion dollars for Georgia.
“This is a reconstruction package for the Georgian economy,” Rice said. “It is not yet time to look at the question of assistance on the military side.”
Todd Leventhal is the Department’s expert on conspiracy theories and misinformation—stories that are untrue, but widely believed. He enjoys reading obituaries, which tell the personal stories of people who have shaped the fabric of American life.
Todd became interested in international affairs after a four-month trip to the Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India in 1972. He worked for Voice of America for seven years and bikes to work year-round.
Comments (2)
Walter
8 September 2008 at 10:30 EDT
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Recent Russian military intervention to stop the Georgian attack against Ossetia prompted several prominent Americans, including George Bush, Condoleezza Rice and John McCain to say that “war is not the way to deal in the 21st century.” These words should be applauded if they were not hypocritical. These words are greeted with laughter in most world capitals but Americans continue to swallow the big lie that Russia attacked Georgia when it was Georgia that attacked separatist regions that had Russian Peace keepers there. It is hypocrisy to think that America or NATO is the only ones entitled to keep warring factions apart. America has violated the Helsinki accord on borders in Yugoslavia and Kosovo, International law by establishing ad-hoc tribunals, tortures prisoners uses disproportionate military force, uses weapons banned by UN agreements, and has killed over a million Iraqi citizens. Is this the morality speaking out against Russia? I suggest that Rice, Bush-McCain mentality and the Americans who see their actions as just need to see themselves as others see them. Most of the world sees America as the new Nazis. What a tragedy for the world
Rabiga
11 September 2008 at 08:15 EDT
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I think America doesn’t want to find out that the Georgian president is the greatest lier. America can’t recognise that it is cheated.