Translated by Sergei of the Untimely Thoughts Russia discussion group.

Prague, 2 October: Caucasus Times has learnt from competent sources that the well-known US Radio Liberty funded by the US Department of State will start broadcasting for [Georgia's breakaway regions of] Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The source of Caucasus Times said that the new service is being
created within the framework of the Georgian service of the radio
station. The new service will go on the air under the name of Liberty Time or Free Times. Residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be able to listen to Radio Liberty on short waves for about an hour every day. Journalist Andrey Babitskiy, who is well-known for his critical materials on Chechnya, is the head of the service.

For the time being, the leadership of Radio Liberty is looking for journalists from Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Georgia. One of the radio station’s personnel said that the time on the air will be divided into Georgian, Ossetian, and Abkhaz segments. In this manner, Liberty will try to unite parties to the conflict on the air.

The aims of the new service are as follows:

* To decrease anti-Georgian sentiments in South Ossetia and Abkhazia;
* To monitor events linked to the Georgian-Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhaz
conflicts;
* To create an information space capable of diminishing the influence of Russian propaganda in the conflict zones.

The objective of the project is to submit objective and weighed
information on events and processes linked to the Georgian-Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhaz conflicts to residents of Georgia’s separatist republics (South Ossetia and Abkhazia); to objectively inform the Ossetians and Abkhaz on the Georgian side’s peace initiatives; and to democratize Ossetian and Abkhaz societies by way of advocating democratic values.

The project has received support for 12 months. If successfully
implemented, it will be prolonged for one more year.

(Source: Caucasus Times website, Prague, in Russian 02 Oct 09 via BBC Monitoring)

Another commentator at UT:

Excellent! A wise choice! I await the broadcast that explains that to resent a dump of BM-21s on your heads at midnight is actually “anti-Georgian sentiments”

Gregor:

You touch on some of the views of post-Yeltsin Russia living in a 1970s time warp.

The USSR like post-Soviet Russia and anything else should receive and be open to constructive criticism.

As someone rased on an anti-Soviet/pro-Russian bent, I nevertheless ewas also brought up on the idea of being as fair as possible when dishing out criticism.

Some of the criticism of the USSR was off from reality. Likewise, the same holds true in relation to contemporary Russia.

If something is really so bad and if one is truly earnest, there’s no need to distort things.

And he was probably the one who adapted best to post-Soviet times. Just look at Yelena Bonner writing hysterical articles with such controversial and original views as ‘terrorism is bad’. Her quarrels with the Soviet Regime were her only real achievements.

Here in Britain the definition of ‘dissident’ is so wide it even includes Berezovsky… it is a strange farce. I read once that, before she was murdered, Anna Politkovskaya thought that the Kremlin was backing the ‘liberal’ movement in Russia: presumably to present an unlikable, dishonest, anti-patriotic, sycophantic and greedy face of opposition. If so, the Kremlin succeeded admirably.

This piece deals with the issue of a basic lack of professionalism. The matter of political biases isn’t as discussed a topic.

As noted in the piece, it’s referring to a part of RFE/RL (its Russian service) and not other parts like its English language web site.

It is unfortunate that Ms. Larina’s missive has been originally written in Russian. In Russian, it has no value. The overwhelming reaction of Russians upon reading this has been “so what exactly are you surprised about here?” There was really nothing new for them.

The real audience should’ve been Americans, who need to understand that the propaganda funded by their tax dollars is not only ineffective, but it’s in fact anti-American. The face that the US presents to Russia is not Obama, and it’s not even Hillary Clinton. It’s these incompetent and morally dubious clowns America hires to do its propaganda. After all that, why would anyone whine that Obama didn’t get a warm reception in Moscow, like a bunch of American newspapers did not long ago? You paid for your image, didn’t you? No point in complaining.