COUNTERING NEO-SOVIET ANTI-U.S. AND ANTI-DEMOCRACY

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 000179 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR R, P, EUR. SA, PA, IPP, DRL NSC FOR MERKEL E.O. 12958: DECL: 1/27/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR PROP KDEM KPAO RS TI SUBJECT: COUNTERING NEO-SOVIET ANTI-U.S. AND ANTI-DEMOCRACY PROPAGANDA IN THE CIS, ESPECIALLY CENTRAL ASIA REF: 05 DUSHANBE 2012 CLASSIFIED BY: Richard E. Hoagland, Ambassador, EXEC, Embassy Dushanbe. REASON: 1.4 (b),(c),(d) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY INITIATIVE ¶1. (U) Especially when analyzing the so-called "color revolutions" in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan, neo-Soviet authoritarians have dominated the information space and defined the world view in Central Asia. U.S. Embassies' Public Affairs Sections face an up-hill battle because Russian media dominate the CIS countries. In Tajikistan, press circulation is extremely small, and most newspapers rely on Russian news services or reprint directly from Russian sources. The vast majority of the population relies on television and radio for news and information, and what they see and hear are Russian channels or else their own state-controlled broadcasts. Internet usage is growing, but it is not universally available. ¶2. (U) The nearly universal message from Russia is that the United States seeks to export democracy through a destabilization campaign and impose it on CIS countries that are not ready for it (REFTEL). President Putin's most recent assertions linking "Western spies" and civil-society NGOs have only exacerbated this problem. In this warped world view, the goal of U.S. NGOs is to overthrow legal governments that are friendly to Moscow to pull them into Washington's orbit in order to surround and weaken Russia. ¶3. (U) To counter this disinformation, and to support the Secretary's vision of transformational diplomacy, we need an SIPDIS intensive and on-going public diplomacy campaign that could include the following elements. -- Op-Eds by Secretary Rice, National Security Adviser Hadley, members of Congress, and other eminent people, fully translated for press and Internet placement, spaced monthly for the next year or more. -- Digital Video Conferences between senior U.S. officials and journalists in CIS countries. Translated transcripts for placement and Internet posting. -- Digital Video Conferences between leaders of major U.S. NGOs and journalists in CIS countries. Translated texts for placement and Internet posting. -- Leaders and eminent board members of major U.S. NGOs visit key CIS countries, call on most senior leaders, meet with other officials and civil society. Conduct press conferences and media roundtables. Press releases and transcripts in translation for all events. -- Regular fact sheets about U.S. NGOs, civil society, and political reform. -- Q&A fact sheets debunking managed democracy and about the role of NGOs - hard questions and clear answers. (See suggested hard questions in para five below.) -- Draw in UK, Germany, and other Europeans to get them, too, on the offensive to do all of the above. -- Monthly U.S. Embassy newspaper (as Embassy Tashkent has proposed) that could be centrally produced (economy of scale) for distribution throughout Central Asia, or even all CIS. A hard-copy product is essential. -- New State website for U.S. NGOs. Would include U.S. policy statements, short and pertinent summary of each NGO's mission statement, list of each NGO's programs in individual Central Asian countries and what they have accomplished. No jargon - real stories, not the bureaucracy talking to itself. Links to each NGO's website. -- Print-product summary (brochure or booklet) of NGO website for broad distribution in Russian and other appropriate languages. -- Make countering Russian anti-democracy propaganda a Public Affairs Rapid Reaction and press-briefing priority. OTHER EFFORTS DUSHANBE 00000179 002 OF 002 ¶4. (S) While overt public diplomacy can play a useful role, it would be worth considering whether other complementary efforts should be authorized. These could include the following. -- Aggressive media campaign through the Russian media, like www.gazeta.ru , Radio Echo Moskvy, Interfax, and others, as well as placement of articles in the major Russian newspapers read in Central Asia. -- Attempt to gain a presence on Russian electronic media, especially television. -- In Central Asia, ensure that editors see the positive material from the Russian media, and pay them, if necessary, to reprint it. -- Counter-press campaign - who is against U.S./Western NGOs and why. Name names and what they gain. Counter the old-guard ideology. -- Write and place positive articles on "Historic Mother Russia in the Western Tradition," the Russia of Peter the Great. SUGGESTED QUESTIONS FOR A HARD-QUESTION FACT SHEET ON U.S. NGOs ¶5. (U) The following frequently heard questions could be answered for a hard-question fact sheet on U.S. NGOs. -- What is a U.S. NGO? -- Why do you call them NGOs even though they exist on U.S. Government money and implement your foreign policy? -- You say Tajikistan gets about $50 million a year in U.S. foreign assistance, but we don't see that money. Don't the NGOs waste most of it with their fancy cars, big houses, and American lifestyles? -- We've seen articles, even in the Western press, that U.S. democracy NGOs caused the "color revolutions" in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan. Haven't you sent them here to "export democracy" and overthrow the existing government? -- Russian authorities say that U.S. democracy NGOs are really working for the CIA; besides plotting to overthrow governments, they are also full of spies gathering sensitive information. How do you respond to that? -- To preserve stability, don't we have the right to decide which of your NGOs to register, to ensure they are working according to their charters, and to monitor them closely? -- Isn't the "democracy" you're exporting against our culture and traditions? -- We're a young country. We're not ready for democracy. Democracy leads to instability. Look at what's happened where there have been "color revolutions." They're worse off now than they were before. -- We need economic development, not social experiments. We want you to invest in our infrastructure and in business joint ventures. Wouldn't that be a better use of your taxpayers' money, and wouldn't that help us more? HOAGLAND