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ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЕ НАУКИ
INFORMATION WARFARE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES _IN THE SYRIAN CONFLICT_
Maria A. German,
Student of Shanghai University of Political Science and Law,
Shanghai city, China
Abstract: In the twenty first century in a process of redistribution of major powers' geopolitical positions, the emergence of alarmist tendencies, militarization, aggravation of inter-state and inter-civilizational conflicts, the issue of conflict interests in the information sphere is becoming more relevant. Syrian crises reflects the modern way of wage war, not just by military but also by media. This article discuss the mass media confrontation between Russia and the United States the Syrian war, which divided the world between good and evil, peace and hell, saviors and terrorists.
Key words: International warfare, mass media confrontation, Russia, the United States, the Syrian crisis, presidential elections, chemical weapon, Hezbollah.
The concept of information warfare.
"Information warfare" originated as a form of information opposition in the middle of 21st century, in a period of confrontation between the two superpowers -the USSR and the USA. However, Thomas Ron, representative of American administration in his report "Weapons Systems and Information War", first formulated the terminology and concept of "information warfare" in the early 1980's.
Nowadays according as technological development and globalization, information warfare has become a tool of foreign policy. For the first time information warfare as a kind of "hybrid war" was provided by American military in the First Gulf War (19901991).
Information warfare is the war of a qualitatively new level, where information in considered to be a weapon. The target of such war is people's mind (undermining the views of enemy's society). All methods and tools are used in this kind of war: lie, pulling phrases out of context, shift in emphasis, ambiguity, dosing information, veiling of truth by presenting it in the beneficial way of contestants and blocking objectionable information. Just with the aid of such tools, mass media provide loss of objective reality and manipulate people's consciousness.
A crucial feature of information warfare is the lack of territorial frameworks. This means that war may acquire a global character, anonymously quiet conducted all over the world (for instance, on territory of the foreign state) because globalization eliminates national borders and barriers.
Today Russia and the United States, as non-regional players, ahead of the curve in local conflicts between nations and civilizations. Consequently, the scope these states' support largely determine the outcome of wars. For example, current geopolitical crises in which Russia and the United states take the opposite positions include the Ukrainian crisis, the Syrian and Yemen's war. One of the main contestant "weapon" is mass media.
Before proceeding to the analysis of information warfare between Russia and the United States, it is necessary to define from both sides' point of view what
does the term "information warfare" means. One of the leading Russian expert in the field of information security and state information policy Manoylo A. identifies three groups of "information warfare" definition, which prevail in Russian academies.
The experts of the first group reduce the concept of information warfare to "separate information activities and operations, information methods and corporate competition means of prosecution of inter-state armed struggle warfare". The experts of the second group under "information warfare" understand the field of military confrontation. The experts from the third group consider it as a "phenomenon of externally peaceful period of inter-state confrontation, which permits to solve foreign policy problems by non-force methods" [19]. Thus, information warfare is characterized as an "information activity, undertaken by political formations (e.g. state) to weaken or destroy opposite political structures. It is also characterized as information struggle between competing competitors or information military conflict between two big enemies, for example, armies" [19].
Scientists from Airborne Military University in Maxwell understand information war as "a way to effect on people's decision-making ability by means of providing effective psychological pressure on the mind through transmission and creation fictitious messages directed at the individual and mass consciousness" [17, p.149].
The tools of the information warfare are media, internet, social networks which use daily coverage, and forming necessary opinions of different countries' citizens. A Russian expert in information security field A. Lahin draws a certain analogy of mass media classification and real army structure. Bloggers, who live in different countries, but have a sufficient number of subscribers to influence on public opinion, can be related to "infantry". Experts from various fields, who are invited to TV stations for debates, discussions etc., can represent "heavy weapons". State media or international institutes' media also belong to the same category of "heavy weapons". "Weapons of mass destruction" are statements of the Foreign Ministry, Ministry
of Defense, international organizations UN and NATO [18].
Relations between Russia and Western countries have always been tense, and in the course of the Ukrainian crisis, they have notably deteriorated. In these circumstances, it was struggle between Russian and Western media for people's mind. In this regard, in March 2015, the commander of the NATO forces in Europe, General F. Breedlove said that the West should launch an information warfare against Russia [5].
Later Daniel Boffey, the chief of the Guardian's Brussels bureau, was complaining about Russian methods of wage informational confrontation: "Kremlin-backed TV channels were jammed into the airspace, Russian-language newspapers disseminated stories and content produced in Moscow, while NGOs, funded by Russian money, offered up talking heads on every issue under the sun. Meanwhile, automatic "digital bots" were churning out messages influencing the search engines" [4].
Although, Russian professor of political science Martynenko E. notices about American means to wage informational warfare: "Information pressure always had a leading role in US military strategy. In their understanding (which is considered as classical) information warfare first of all is an ideological and psychological indoctrination of the armed forces, population, military and political leadership of the opponent in order to create the necessary Americans public opinion or misinformation. Therefore, the United States generally impose its will on opposing party" [20].
Informational confrontation in Syrian conflict.
Political background. The Syrian crises is a multilateral confrontation, which began in spring 2011 as a local civil conflict, gradually developed into a civil war. Initially the fighting was between the Syrian Arab Armed Forces (the Syrian Government army) and militias of the "Free Syrian army" (FSA). To strengthen military positions, the creators of FSA troops brought militants and Islamists groups on the Syrian territory. Those creators brought a religion aspect into the war (by making problems between Christian and Muslim, Sunni and Shia). In 2013, the most radical Islamist groups formed the Islamic front ("al-Nusra Front") and Islamic State (ISIS). It must be noted that "al-Nusra Front" was strongly backed and financed by Qatar and ISIS backed and money-supported by Saudi Arabia.
Different Islamist groups among which are the most capable terrorist organization "al-Nusra Front" (the local branch of al-Qaeda) and the "Islamic State" (ISIS) began to play a leading role in the confrontation between government forces and opposition. From that time, the nature of war was changed to national liberation war against terrorism. Main parties of the conflict are the regular armed and paramilitary forces, acting on the side of the incumbent President Bashar al-Assad (Syrian Arab army, National Defence forces, etc.), the formation of "moderate" Syrian opposition, the Free Syrian army, some parts Kurdish regionalists as well as
various kinds of Islamist and jihadi terrorist groups (ISIS, al-Nusra Front, etc.). The parties to the conflict receive military assistance from other countries. Russia, Iran, foreign forces (particularly the Lebanese Hezbollah) support government Assad's forces, Western countries, the United States and Gulf monarchies second Syrian opposition.
Informational aspect. Concerning war in Syria, active information warfare is waging not only on the battlefield but also outside the boundaries of the military conflict. The reason for such aggressive information conflict of interests between Russia and the United States through the media is the chance to enlist the support of society. Brainwashing and manipulation of public consciousness create public attitude and opinion, from which in a certain extent the outcome of war depends on. Media influence on the people's mind and change ideas about subsidiary aid or troops, how other people from outside the conflict will see the situation, how they estimate the further continuation of the conflict after the intervention of allies and enemies from the outside (Russia and USA), how their actions will be estimated from legitimacy by the others representatives of international organizations, etc. In this context, topical questions about Syrian civil war are the following: reasons for conflict, the current course of events, assessments of foreign countries' role in war, use of chemical weapons, presidential elections, execution of international agreements and socio-political public sense of local Syrians.
The actors of information warfare in Syria. In March 2011, with the beginning of Syrian civil war it has been unleashed a fairly cynical information warfare against this country, which involved more than a hundred international news agencies and other mass media. The most active among them are the largest Arabic Qatar TV channel and website "Al Jazeera" and its main competitor Saudi Arabia TV channel "Al Arabiya", which usually expresses more moderate and Western complementary point of view1. European TV channel "Euronews", BBC news, "the Guardian", CNN, the Russian RIA agency, Interfax, the Syrian Arab News Agency also involved in this contest [9].
In this regard, many independent journalists unanimously started to speak about the information warfare against Syria. Reports from the mass demonstrations of Bashar al-Assad's opposition forces reconstituted by media and a dozen extras with installation and decorations of the Syrian streets, which are depicted in the Hollywood background [9]. Moreover, lots of western TV channels or publishing houses were showing to audience photographs of anti-government rallies, with comments about protest actions against the current Syrian governmental regime. However, those who knew Arabic clearly saw that on posters, which those demonstrators were holding, were written entirely opposite slogans in favour to support President Assad. Since the beginning of the civil war such outright embarrassment, which targeted to turn inside out public consciousness
1 "Al Jazeera" and "Al Arabiya" were founded by members of the Qatari and Saudi royal families, respectively, and their
coverage of Syria faithfully reflects the political positions of their backers.
about what is happening in Syria and completely reshape social reality, happened a lot.
Russia and Western countries conglomerate headed by USA occupy the counterpositions in the Syrian crisis, therefore, they considered to be as main actors in information campaigns. It should be noted, that in the Syrian war Saudi Arabia has similar to the US position, while Qatar, Turkey, Iran on Syria form alliance with Russia2; 3.
The causes of Syrian conflict. Reason of war rooted in evaluation of further events. Therefore, one of the most important tasks of each party to the conflict is the justification of its innocence in unleashing the war.
Most Russian experts suppose that clashes in Syria are caused by complicated internal political situation. Scientific experts consider that the US and its Arab allies' interest to the oil and gas transit projects to Europe is one of the factor to levy war. From its origin Syria is lied on transit area from the Middle East to Europe and a truism consist who controls the transit, that controls the region4.
American mass media justify other preconditions of the Syrian conflict. In particular, the journalist of the American news Agency ABC News Alice Wirsam claims that the Syrian people rebelled against the political stagnation and lack of democracy. In response to public protests, the Syrian government began to use extreme measures toward remonstrates, resorting to kidnapping, torture and murder. "Syrians voiced their un-happiness with the stagnant political process and were advocating for democratic reforms. These protests did not go over well with the government, which responded with extreme measures including the kidnapping, torture and killing of protesters. Government troops began opening fire on civilians, who fired back in response. Civilian rebel forces then began organizing and arming themselves to combat government violence, which led to government military powers destroying entire neighborhoods and towns. Combined, the rising tensions between the two groups created the current state of civil war" [48].
The famous British news Agency BBC, said that the beginning of Syrian civil war was caused by arrest and torture of schoolchildren who were caught writing anti-government slogans on the wall of a building: "It began because local people decided to protest after 15 schoolchildren were arrested - and reportedly tortured - for writing anti-government graffiti on a wall". On March 18, 2011 people organized a peaceful protest and were calling for the release of the children, democracy and greater freedom for people in the country. But the army opened fire on protesters. Next day, they shot at mourners at the victims' funerals, killing another person. This was lead to unrest, which soon spread to other parts of the country [47].
2 Until May 2017, Qatar has taken a pro-Saudi position in the Syrian crisis, but after the rupture of diplomatic relations with the KSA, the pro-Iranian vector replaced foreign policy of Qatar.
3 From the begging of the Syrian war, Turkey supplied Assad's opposition by resources and arming. However, after
coup attempt in July 15, 2016 president Erdogan provided purges in the state apparatus to strengthening and tightening
In these circumstances, immediately draws attention to the statement of the Syrian (government) Arab News Agency (SANA), which stated that Syria since the crisis exposed the large-scale media attack from some Arab and foreign media to undermine the country's credibility and weaken its position on inter-Arab, regional and international scene. Ministry of Information of Syria reported that regardless of murders and crimes against Syrian civilians, Arab and Western media coverage of the events from the point of view of the terrorists and refuse to publish official government data. Indeed, the League of Arab States (LAS) initiated by the Gulf monarchies, decided to block Syrian government TV channels in the neighboring countries of Syria [39].
Russian information resources does not focus on this incident, because, historically, the Syrian government rested on a strong structure of state bodies, reconnaissance, protection and preservation of the president power. The incident with children was just a wick to ignite the conflict and to provoke a civil war. In the Syrian information portal, President Assad clearly and concisely commented on methods of suppression of protests: "Our decision from the very beginning was to respond to the demands of the demonstrators, although they were not truly peaceful demonstrations from the start. We already lost soldiers and policemen during the first weeks. Nevertheless, a committee changed the constitution (to reflect the protesters' concerns), and later there was a referendum. But we also have to fight terrorism to defend our country. I admit that mistakes were made during the implementation of this decision. In every implementation in the world, you have mistakes. You are human." [24].
The course of the war. The period of hostilities is the most significant from the viewpoint of evaluation of participants' policy. The most pressing topics include the use of prohibited weapons, murder of civilians, violations of international agreements. Depending on conflict sides' actions, there are different ways for further interpretation and formation of the necessary public mood. In the Syrian conflict various media groups has opposite trends to cover current events.
Victims among the civilian population is the most tragic part of every war, including the Syrian. Terrorist attacks on civilians are covered in the "Message About the Events in Syria" of the Ministry of Information of Syria: "All the time rebels resort only to terrorism and armed violence against the state, civilians, army soldiers and military personnel of state security agency and law enforcement authorities. The number of violations [by rebels] of the UN envoy Kofi Annan's plan reached 10600, their victims are hundreds of dead among the civilian population and military personnel,
his power. Western countries interpreted such political course antidemocratic line and dictatorship.
4 Qatar and Saudi Arabia had their own project of Qatar pipeline to Europe via the Red sea and the Suez Canal. But in connection with Bashar al-Assad's negative position of Qatari project to supply gas to Europe, Qatar and Saudi Arabia has increased their influence on the Syrian opposition.
not to mention sabotage against infrastructure, including power lines, oil and gas pipelines, hospitals and schools" [33].
Actually, each party of conflict tries strongly denies its involvement in terrible events and blames its opponent's for murder of civilians and for terror against the population. Thus, in July 2012, a lot of noise caused the murder of child Sari Saoud in the district of Al-Sabil in Homs city. He died when he went to the shop. "Al-Jazeera" was very quick to broadcast the footage and used the boy's death for their own purposes to accuse the Syrian army. However, his parents did not want to be tools in this terrible political-media game. His mother appeared on Syrian television and said that one of the terrorist group killed her son [14]. But the false reporting of Al-Jazeera was picked up by Western media, and desperate voice of the mother who lost her son went unheeded.
Later in Homs was captured a terrorist Mazen Majed Dabdoub who killed Sari Saoud. He confessed not only to this crime, but also in many other ones committed by his terroristic group in Homs. The boy was killed in order to blame for his murder Syrian army -that is, for the sake of false propaganda. Arrested terrorist also confirmed that there were no Syrian army in Al-Sabil district at the time of the murder. The mother of Sari Saoud was completely right [10].
Presidential elections. Presidential elections were held in Syria on June 3, 2014. It was the first multi-candidate elections in decades since the Ba'ath party came to power in a coup. In late April 2014, Ba-shar al-Assad announced he would run for a third term in Syria's first multi-candidate direct presidential election. At the background of political instability, war and counter terrorism, President Bashar al-Assad had won reelection in Syria with 88.7 percent of the vote.
Syrian presidential elections again split world opinion. The Gulf Cooperation Council, the European Union and the United States dismissed the election as illegitimate. They supposed that "Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has been re-elected in a landslide win, after a vote in which much of the country could not take part". Arabian "Al Jazeera" posted the article, where it was said: "The opposition says this is a farce, they don't recognize these elections. They say there is no way it could be legitimate while civil war is raging in the country, while it's being organized by the same president they want to overthrow. Rebel fighters, the political opposition in exile, Western powers and Gulf Arabs say no credible vote can be held in a country where swathes of territory are outside state control and millions have been displaced by conflict." [38].
British "The Guardians" published the information that "Assad's victory was always a foregone conclusion, despite the presence of other candidates on the ballot for the first time in decades. Voting was held only in government-controlled areas, excluding huge tracks of northern and eastern Syria that are in rebel hands" [2].
The US Secretary of State John Kerry said the elections were "meaningless". "With respect to the elections that took place, the so-called elections, the elections are non-elections, the elections are a great big
zero." [16]. The European Union concluded: "These elections are illegitimate and undermine the political efforts to find a solution to this horrific conflict." [36].
Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "Assad lacked legitimacy before this election, and he lacks it afterwards. This election bore no relation to genuine democracy. It was held in the midst of civil war." [49].
The Washington Post declared: "The outcome of the vote did not come as a surprise and, in the absence of independent monitors or observers, was impossible to verify" [16].
However, it was organized an international delegation from more than 30 countries including Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Iraq, Nicaragua, Russia, South Africa and Venezuela. Thus, Latino-American media said, that this delegation issued a statement claiming the election was "free, fair and transparent" [12].
Russian observers declared they recognize the elections in Syria as legitimate. Moscow considers the presidential elections "as an important event that ensures the continued functioning of state institutions", said the official representative of Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Lukashevich [22]. He also added: "According to reports from Syria, observers note that the elections were held in a fair, free and transparent atmosphere. In the current conditions, the elections cannot be considered as 100% perfect from the standpoint of democratic standards. But Russian observers have made a clear conclusion. We have no grounds to put into question the legitimacy of the elections" [25].
According to Russian experts, the presidential elections in Syria were the real proof of support for incumbent President Bashar al-Assad. Alexey Sarabyev, the head of Department of Institute of Oriental studies of Russian Academy of Sciences affirmed, "Assad pursues a consistent policy of appeasement of country situation" [22].
Iranian president Rouhani was on the same position. In his letter of congratulations to Assad, he wrote: "The results of this election show Syrian people's trust and determination for moving toward stability, security and national solidarity." [15].
Afghanistan, Algeria, Armenia, Belarus, Bolivia, Brunei, Cuba, Guyana, Nicaragua, North Korea, Palestine, Somali, South Africa, Venezuela and Hezbollah expressed the congratulations to Bashar al-Assad.
Chemical attack. Today a special attention of media is given to the issue of the use of chemical weapons in Syria. In an interview with the West "Der Spiegel" in 2012 Bashar al-Assad said the official position of Damascus: "We did not use chemical weapons. This is a misstatement. So is the picture you paint of me as a man who kills his own people. Who isn't against me? You've got the United States, the West, the richest countries in the Arab world and Turkey. All this and I am killing my people and they still support me! Am I a Superman? No." [3].
UN inspectors went to Damascus to gather the necessary tests and biological samples. The mission of the UN investigation confirmed the fact of a chemical attack, but the mission's objectives did not include determination of who had used neuroparalytic gas sarin.
The possible use of chemical weapons unleashed a global discussion about the need to start a military operation in Syria. The Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the position of those who called for Syrian conflict military solution, and initiate to establish international control over the Syrian military chemical potential. On September 28, 2013 the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution in favour of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' (OPCW) plan to destroy Syrian chemical arsenal. At the beginning of 2016, the OPCW declared the complete destruction of Syrian chemical weapons.
However, the new incident of Syrian chemical weapons occurred in March 2017 in Khan Sheikhoun5. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Syrian air force struck at Khan Sheikhoun the arsenal of the terrorists with chemical weapons, which were delivered to Iraq [21].
In response to the Russian Ministry of Defense statement about explosion on the objective where chemical weapons were manufactured, the Western media accused Russia of lack the evidence and intelligence absence, although the Russian troops had the technical means, capable of producing aerial survey [7].
President Bashar al-Assad subsequently said the incident was a "fabrication" used to justify a US cruise missile strike on Syria's Shayrat airbase on 7 April. "Our impression is that the West, mainly the United States, is hand-in-glove with the terrorists. They fabricated the whole story in order to have a pretext for the attack," he told AFP news agency [34].
In fact, in April Moscow adhered two main versions of what happened in Idlib. According to the President of the Russian Federation, "it was an installation, directed against Bashar al-Assad's regime6 or a strike of Syrian aircraft struck into underground workshop on toxic substances manufacture" [27].
"The video about the effects of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian province of Idlib, published by certain Western media, is prearrange, - said spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, - This gives a firm impression about the staged nature of the video, and we have no doubt that the whole undertaking is obviously provocative" [41].
In the Russian mass media appeared information that TV Channel "Al Jazeera" prepared a staged plot of this chemical attack. "Confirmed through multiple channels of information, videography stringers of the TV channel Al Jazeera recently carried out the alleged staged of how Syrian army use chemical weapons against the civilian population". The shooting was done in localities Sarakeb, Erich and Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib province. In the production was allegedly involved about 30 fire trucks and ambulances, as well as
"up to 70 local residents with children brought from the camp of refugees." [6].
Moreover, Al Jazeera published an interview with Abdul Hamid al-Yousef and his brother Mohammed, who became the victims of a chemical attack. Both eyewitnesses accused the Assad's regime and take the side of the opposition [35; 43].
In relation to the air strike, Russian side affirms that the Syrian air force struck at the Khan Sheikhoun terrorists' warehouse with accumulation of military equipment. "On the territory of this warehouse were workshops for the bombs manufacture, stuffed with poisonous substances. From this large arsenal, fighters delivered ammunition with chemical weapons to Iraq. Their use by terrorists has been repeatedly proved both by international organizations and official authorities of this country", said the representative of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense [41].
On April 6, the OPCW declared the beginning of investigation on the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria. The General Director of the OPCW announced the conclusion on April 20: "in the air strike on April 4 in Idlib, Syrian used sarin or its analogue with neuroparalytic affects," published the information Agency INTERFAX with reference to the Associated Press.
Do not understand the situation the American authorities without adducting any proof accused the Assad's regime: "The United States strongly condemns the chemical weapons attack in Idlib province, the third allegation of the use of such weapons in the past month alone. There are reports of dozens dead, including many children. While we continue to monitor the terrible situation, it is clear that this is how Bashar al-Assad operates: with brutal, unabashed barbarism." [8].
On April 7, the US Navy forces launched a missile attack on al-Sirat Syrian air base by "Tomahawk" cruise missiles by order of the USA President Donald Trump. He declared this action as response to the use of Syrian army chemical weapons in Khan Sheikhoun.
In the interview with CBS Secretary of US Tiller-son clearly said about who was responsible for these attacks: "It was Bashar al-Assad. And I think the Russians need to think more carefully about the commitment they made under the chemical weapons agreements to be the guarantor that these weapons would be seized, they would be removed, they would be destroyed. And since they are Bashar al-Assad's ally, they would have the closest insight as to the compliance. So regardless of whether Russia was complicit here or whether they were simply incompetent or whether they got outwitted by the Bashar al-Assad regime" [28].
On October 14, the Director of the Department of non-proliferation and arms control of the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Ulyanov denied the US information. Earlier on April 4, US Ambassador in the UN Nikki Haley demonstrated children's photos from
5 From 2014 "Dzhebhat an-Nusra" terrorists occupy the city Khan Sheyhun. It is almost all Idlib province under the control of different islamists' groups.
6 The phrase "Assad regime" is politically incorrect. Western countries and the USA use this word combination to oppose
Assad to democratic opposition, to point Assad's dictatorship. According to the current situation, Assad is the legitimate President of the Syrian Republic, his political regime is considered as the Syrian government regime, so the phrase "Assad regime" must be changed to the Syrian government regime.
the epicenter of sarin attack. M. Ulyanov disproved the speech of Haley. Based on the photos of the victims in Khan Sheikhoun, it was concluded that they were exposed to psychotropic substances. "Those who put these pictures on the Internet and provoked thereby, if you believe the press, the decision on the missile attack clearly had poor idea about the consequences of the sarin use", said Ulyanov. On the basis of logical evidence he also put in doubt the fact of use air bomb [31].
Later on October, the US State Department acknowledged the report of the OPCW. Thus, in the explanation why American citizens should not travel to Syria, the US State Department said: "In July 2017, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham consolidated power in Idlib province after it clashed with other armed actors. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham control over Idlib threatens the ability of NGOs and states to deliver humanitarian aid to Syrians residing in Idlib. Tactics of ISIS, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and other violent extremist groups include the use of suicide bombers, kidnapping, small and heavy arms, improvised explosive devices, and chemical weapons" [37].
After this, Russian officials have concluded that "the US Department of State has for the first time confirmed that terrorists active in the Syrian province of Idlib not only have but also use chemical weapons." [26]. Like this, in indirect way the USA acknowledged terroristic groups used chemical weapon.
"It is not clear just what Washington needed a loud attack of expensive cruise missiles "Tomahawk" on the Syrian air base al-Sirat. Because it was possible to burn tens of millions of dollars and doing - striking at terrorists "Dzhebhat-en-nusra", said the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense I. Konashenkov [26]. Actually, the recognition that existing militants group in Idlib use chemical weapons is a proof that the attack on the al-Sirat airbase was absolutely a fatuous decision, testifying the unwise policy of the United States.
In fact, this incident in Khan Sheikhoun confirms the words of Bashar al-Assad about US and Western States inaccuracies, hasty conclusions and lack of evidence. "Your region always arrives late when it comes to understanding the actual situation. When we were speaking about violent protests, you were still talking about "peaceful demonstrations". And when we started talking about extremists, you started talking about "some" militants. When you spoke of extremists, we were already talking about al-Qaida. Then they started talking about a "few" terrorists at a time when we were already talking about a majority." [13].
Hezbollah. Throughout the Syrian war it has being remained a controversial issue about participation in conflict of militant representatives and terrorist organizations. At that time, when the Syrian government says about the war and the policy of State army against foreign terrorists, media agencies BBC and Al Jazeera reported on the participation of fighters from the Lebanese paramilitary organization "Hezbollah" 7 on the
side of Bashar al-Assad. In particular, Western media perceived military help of Hezbollah to Bashar al-As-sad as an intervention into Syria [11].
In fact, Syrian troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been fighting to oust Islamic State from Syria's territory. Hezbollah has proved to be an important player countering the jihadist militants in both Syria and Iraq. Despite this, "the US House of Representatives have backed new sanctions on Lebanon's Hezbollah militia", announced "Al Jazeera" in October 2017 [45]. Since its association with the Assad regime in Syria, Arab countries have joined a chorus of disapproval against Hezbollah. In March 2016, the Arab League designated "Hezbollah" as a terrorist organization. All members of the Arab League supported the decision, except Lebanon and Iraq, who objected to the resolution [1].
Hezbollah is considered as a terrorist organization by the governments of the United States, Israel, Canada, the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council, along with its military/security wing by the United Kingdom, Australia and the European Union. In May 2017, "Saudis, United States blacklist a Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine, a prominent leader of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah that is a close ally of Riyadh's arch-regional adversary Iran" - said news agency of Reutres in Dubai [32].
On the contrary, Moscow acknowledges that in the Syrian war Hezbollah has become the most useful nongovernment player, which has a close contact with Russian military forces in the Syrian battlefield since 2015. Russia's threat to veto the UN Security Council resolution renewing UNIFIL's mandate in Lebanon if it cited Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Kremlin provides the defensive shield for Hezbollah at the United Nations and views Hezbollah not as a terrorist organization, but as a legitimate political one. "Hezbollah is a legitimate political force, and its representatives are in the Parliament of Lebanon. We are with them maintain contacts and relationships because we do not consider them a terrorist organization. They have never committed any terrorist attacks on Russian territory", said Mikhail Bogdanov, special envoy of the Russian President for the Middle East and North Africa [30].
The outcome of the war. The outcome of the Syrian conflict depends on not only the future of Syria, but the balance of power in the Middle East, the prospect of fighting international terrorism and the emerging world order. The assessment of the Syrian civil war development prospects has a crucial importance for planning future actions. That is why, for forming the necessary public opinion and public support, contestants are trying different ways to interpret future scenarios.
Today many media confirm that preponderance of forces today is on the side of Syrian government forces and soon armed rebels and terrorists will be defeated completely. Terrorists' resources are exhausted; they are morale broken, while the Syrian army has made sig-
7 Hezbollah is one of the biggest groups in Lebanon's governing coalition and is strongly backed by Iran, a close ally of President Assad.
nificant progress. Russian media reported: "during Sochi negotiations, two leaders [Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin] ascertain the imminent defeat of the terrorists and the necessity of transition to the political process". Putin told Assad that the military campaign was "wrapping up", but there is still "a long way to go" [46].
On December 11, 2017, Vladimir Putin visited Syria and announced: "I suppose that the task of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian armed forces is accomplished". Next day Russia started withdrawal of troops. The operation to help Syria combat terrorism is completed, that is why no longer necessary to use large-scale military capacity. But Russia keeps two military base - Khmeimim and Tartus, "if terrorists will rise their heads up, crushing blows which they never saw before will be applied to them", said Putin [23].
After Putin's announcement about withdrawal of Russian troops, President of the United States Donald Trump said that his country achieved victory over the terrorist group "Islamic State" in Iraq and Syria and pursues militants in other regions: "We won in Syria, we won in Iraq, but they are distributed in other areas, and we pursue them as quickly as they spread," Trump said, speaking at the White House at the signing of the defense budget [44].
Russia consider the statement of Trump as groundless and illogical. The official representative of Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said: "These statements are limitless in their illogical, groundless and changeability. The statements of the official representatives of the Government Agencies of the USA are endlessly changing from one point to the opposite. The only question is that specially claimed to promote political activity in order to attract voters, or that is the official position of the United States?" [40].
Putin came to Syria on December 11, 2017, not Trump. It is Russian troops defend Syria from September 2015. According to the Russian Defense Ministry data, during Syrian war Russian Aerospace forces did 6956 sorties, more than 7 thousand helicopter sorties. Russian forces combat more than 32 thousand terrorists destroy 394 tanks and more than 12 thousand units of weapons and equipment of terrorist's arsenal.
On December 18, 2017, the Vise Prime Minister visited Syria and concluded:
"There is still a big and long work to become stable, huge and very important territory. It is obvious, "the war for the minds" will continue and depend on how soon and how effectively the Syrian leadership will be able to heal wounds from a "fire war" [29].
Conclusion.
Information warfare between mass media creates new tensions in the Syrian conflict. Misinformation is the main mean of struggle. The analysis of numerous Arabian, American, British, French, Russian, Syrian media reports demonstrates that sometimes they are deliberately falsified, so that it is difficult to give an objective assessment on current events. However, undoubtedly there are an enormous loss of lives, millions of refugees and destroyed the country in the heart of the Middle East.
For both states, Russia and the United States, public diplomacy is an essential tool for achieving public support in the world community by providing the state's or its agent's activity to influence on the nation of other countries, to form public opinion, to approve its policy. In these processes it is used a wide range of possibilities, including the media, Internet resources, social networks, community organizations and mass events. Modern mass media not only can lead to chaos in the country, it also can cause civil conflicts. Today, they almost form the foundations of modern society, bringing to the people certain values and causing the denial of the other.
Today to provide power it is significant to control main media. In this case, the targets of information warfare is very simple: to result in the change of country's political regime or to weaken it. Such set of actions (of course, in case of success) leads to loss of government controllability, economic decline, and often to civil war - as we see on the example of Syria.
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Maria A. German, student of Shanghai University of Political Science and Law; Research Fields: regional security in the Middle East, Russian and Chinese policy in the Middle East
ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ ИНТЕРПРЕТАЦИИ ФЕВРАЛЬСКОЙ РЕВОЛЮЦИИ: ДОЛГАЯ ТРАНСФОРМАЦИЯ
(к 101-й годовщине февральской революции 1917 года)
Руман Харонович Макуев8
Аннотация: исследуется человеческий фактор, истерзанный в противоречиях болезненных амбиций, мелочной зависти, растущей гражданской неприязни, приведших к Февральскому перевороту, переросшему в неуправляемую смуту и катастрофу. Предприняты усилия обосновать тот факт, что на начальной стадии противоречия в "верхних социальных слоях общества" привели к перевороту, в котором решающую роль сыграл высший генералитет. Показаны духовная и политическая нищета, амбиции, беспомощность, апатия и ложь, царившие в окружении Императора, в его правительстве и в среде военной касты. Сделана попытка более правдиво высказаться о личностях, вовлеченных в переворот, а затем и в революционный процесс. Достаточно убедительно показано, что двоевластие сохранялось из-за нерешительности Временного правительства и его боязни военных. Уступив Советы, потеряв доверие армейского руководства, революционеры фразы сдали власть большевикам, роспуск которыми Учредительного собрания означал, что Россия оказалась в состоянии Гражданской войны. Делается вывод, что народам России революции более не нужны.
Abstract: the human factor is examined, torn apart in the contradictions of painful ambitions, petty jealousies, growing civil disaffection, which led to the February coup, which grew into an uncontrollable distemper and catastrophe. Efforts had been made to justify, to substantiate that in the initial stages of the contradictions in the "upper social strata of society" led to the coup, in which the decisive role played by the Superior General. Showing the spiritual and political poverty, ambition, helplessness, apathy and lies surrounded by the reigning Emperor, in his Government Wednesday and military caste. Attempt more truthfully speak about the personalities
8 Заведующий кафедрой Орловского государственного работник высшей школы РФ, академик АВН, РАЕН, университета имени И.С.Тургенева, доктор юридических ЕАЕН. E-mail: [email protected] наук, профессор, заслуженный юрист РФ, заслуженный
