Government stratcoms target critical media instead of Russian propaganda, report finds

A new report by Gnomon Wise, a research institute of the University of Georgia has published a new report suggesting strategic communications departments of various Georgian state institutions set up with significant western backing mainly target critical media, leaving Russian disinformation unanswered.

The report focuses on the Government stratcoms’ complete silence on the conspiracy theory that the US and the EU are trying to “drag Georgia into war.”

“This is nothing more than a failure to fulfill their main function,” the report says.

Strategic communications departments of various Georgian state institutions were with considerable western support in the hope that Georgia would effectively counter Russian hybrid threats through them.

The Gnomon Wise report instead suggests the departments, or stratcoms, are mostly deployed when the state institutions or their heads are subjected to criticism from opposition media.

This conclusion is established through surveying social media profiles of the stratcoms and their posts/statements where they, apparently even fail to clearly state that Russia is the main source of the propaganda and disinformation.