Ivanishvili’s win at Georgian parliamentary polls does not guarantee big improvements in relations with Russia

Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream got 55% of vote after calculations of 97.03% of protocols at the elections on Monday. President Mikheil Saakashvili’s party got 40.27%. Votes have been counter at 3,590 (including 64 special) out of 3,766 polling stations. Alexander Rar, science director of the German-Russian Forum, commented on the election results for Vestnik Kavkaza. He believes that Saakashvili will most likely take Putin’s path and remain at power by giving the prime minister more authority.

Saakashvili has minimal chances, the political analyst believes. There are no constitutional ways he could stay at power, Rar explains.

The political analyst does not expect a major improvement of Russian Georgian relations after the victory of Ivanishvili. Rar said that political elites in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and South Caucasus states do not want to be under Russian influence. They have economic interests, but do not want political unions in the next decade. Rar ruled out presence of Georgia in the Eurasian Union.

Georgia is devoted to the western course, just as Azerbaijan. Russian-Azerbaijani relations would be the best model for Georgia. The Armenian-Russian model is impossible today. The expert says that Ivanishvili may calm the will of Georgia to take control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia