...the pipeline, though strategically and politically important, is not as big a factor in the conflict that the Georgian government is claiming. President Mikheil Saakashvili would like Western public opinion to believe that this is more than a territorial battle over a disputed region, and hopes that portraying it as a fight to protect valuable oil supplies will attract more sympathy.
In other news, a pipeline has been reopened by BP. And Russia and Georgia are whining to their PR agencies that they aren’t sounding cool enough.
The Brussels PR agency promoting Russia’s side in the dispute with Georgia has been criticised for being part of Russia’s ‘propaganda’ machine.
GPlus has been advising the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation since April 2006. Meanwhile, rival agency Aspect Consulting was hired by Georgia late last year to reach out to Western audiences.
Aspect Consulting founding partner James Hunt told PRWeek: ‘There are agencies that work for Russia but I don’t know how they can be comfortable about that. I feel I’m on the side of the angels.’
You heard it from Georgia’s PR guy! Russia are the propagandists and Georgia are the angels. I guess we’re on the side of angels. Thank goodness. (Barf.)