The majority of Georgian citizens (52%) stand for maintaining the country's pro-Western foreign policy while maintaining good relations with Russia, a survey conducted by the US National Democratic Institute (NDI) reports.
16% think that Georgia should have a pro-Russian foreign policy and good relations with the EU and NATO.
14% think that Georgia should be pro-western, 5% think that Georgia should have a pro-Russian policy, 11% admitted that they do not know and 1% refused to answer the question.
The survey was conducted from February 23 to March 14. 3900 people took part in the survey. The poll’s margin of error is no more than 1.6%, Sputnik Georgia reports.
The head of the Institute of Management Strategy, Petre Mamradze, said in conversation with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza that there is a very high demand in Georgian society for maintaining good relations with Russia. "It is simply necessary for the existence of Georgia. At least one million citizens of the republic live in Russia now, they send money to Georgia and many people are trying to leave the republic for Russia. Everyone knows it, everyone understands. Back in 2008, after the end of the crazy war events, 80-85% directly said that the restoration of good-neighborly and friendly relations with Russia is necessary for the existence of Georgia," he reminded.
"The same thing is happening again. I trust such responses, because Georgia has striven to become a member of European society for hundreds of years, but it is necessary to have normal, good relations with Russia," the analyst added.
The expert explained that many Georgian politicians regularly make anti-Russian statements because "the so-called political elite of Georgia, all the well-known officials, have chosen this rhetoric since the end of the 80s." "They do not understand that it brings them nothing. Those who became a part of the Georgian Dream coalition in 2012 would not have been able to overcome the threshold and enter the Parliament with such slogans without Ivanishvili," he said.
According to Mamradze, these politicians "have some contacts with individual Western politicians who support them." "It is known that some Baltic leaders strongly incite Saakashvili. Some of them said that they support him. And meanwhile they intensively worked to build relations with Russia. But I think that now it is different. For example, the former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen directly said that the biggest step that the Dream coalition was able to do in the direction of Europe and NATO lies in the fact that it was trying to improve relations with Russia, because everyone understands that the West does not want to deal with our country without normal relations with Russia. Obama spoke about it, who is in confrontation with Russia," the head of the Institute of Management Strategy concluded.
A member of the Expert Club of Georgia, Vakhtang Maisaya, noted that Georgian society, indeed, is for the most part in favor of maintaining good relations with Russia. "This percentage has grown in Georgia, especially after 2008, and became more clear than before, so the survey data correspond to reality. However, this figure is lower than in 2008, when 78% voted in favor of the Euro-Atlantic integration, but now this figure is 52%," he said.
According to the expert, the pro-Western orientation of Georgia's population is connected with the state propaganda of the country's development, and this propaganda is conducted by both the government and the opposition. "In addition, the fact that Georgia has chosen the Western way of thinking and the pro-Western political orientation has historical roots," the member of the Expert Club of Georgia added.
Vakhtang Maisaya stressed that the anti-Russian rhetoric of some Georgian politicians has no effect on the attitude of those who think that it is necessary to be in good relations with Russia, but on the contrary, unites them.
