Alexander Skakov: "Russia and Georgia are destined to engage in dialogue"

On October 27th 2013 presidential elections took place in Georgia. These were the sixth presidential elections after the declaration of independence of Georgia in 1991. The coordinator of the working group of the Institute of Central Asia and the Caucasus at the Institute for Oriental Studies, Alexander Skakov, talks about the results of the elections.

According to the expert, the biggest surprise of the presidential elections in Georgia was not the victory of the candidate from "Georgian Dream" Georgiy Margvelashvili in the first round, but the distribution of votes between the candidate from the "United National Movement" David Bakradze and ex-parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze. Skakov believes that Russia and Georgia will certainly engage in a dialogue. The fact that the countries have been having such relations in recent years is not normal. One should not look for someone to blame, we must do everything possible to improve the situation. Georgia is primarily interested in stability in the North Caucasus. It is important that Russia and Georgia have a large area for negotiations, it is only necessary to move in the right direction.