Comment of the Press and Information Department regarding Dutch TV false report on Russian invasion of Georgia

On January 3, 2009, the Dutch television station NOS in its programme NOS Journaal broadcast a false and misleading report on Russia’s invasion of Georgia last August.

The segment featured a Georgian woman, Nino Matkava, who was said to have served on the front lines in South Ossetia. In the report, the Dutch correspondent, Kiesje Hekstra, asserts that Georgian President Saakashvili "started” the war. She adds: "He viewed the war as a game, a game in which Nino and others like her were jeopardizing their lives.”

The report relied on the emotional impact of Ms. Matkava's experience in the war. However, Ms. Matkava was not serving in the Georgian military at the time of the invasion. In fact, she was nowhere near the front lines and thus was in no position to provide any information on the events surrounding the invasion. Ms. Matkava served as a command unit target operator of Georgian Armed Forces and was dismissed on June 12, 2006 due to the violation of the contract conditions. Furthermore, the Dutch broadcast offered no other credible information to back its assertion

The Ambassador of Georgia to the Netherlands has brought these details to the attention of the Dutch broadcaster and formally requested an on-air retraction of the report. The Ambassador also urged the station to investigate how the report came to be aired; it was filed by the station's Moscow correspondent, thus casting doubt on her professionalism as a journalist.

This report is the latest in what appears to be a systematic campaign of disinformation by Russia that aims to manipulate international opinion on the origins of the Russian invasion.

The most egregious falsehood promoted by Moscow—and its initial premise for invading Georgia—was that over 2,100 South Ossetian civilians had been killed by Georgian forces before Russia’s invasion. Just last week, Russia’s own Prosecutor-General, Alexander Bastrykin, "revised” this number down to 162—including civilians on both sides killed before and after the invasion.

Russia has made numerous other efforts to manipulate Western political and public opinion. For instance, the Associated Press reported last month that a supposed South Ossetian NGO activist who had made searing allegations against Georgia was in fact linked to Russian intelligence services. Moscow also has promoted the claims of a former OSCE monitor, Ryan Grist, who asserted Georgian culpability in triggering the August war; however, he himself revealed to the Wall Street Journal last month that his claims had been taken too far and that he had been dismissed from the OSCE for misconduct.