MOSCOW, August 12, 2009. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents view of Russians towards President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, as well as towards prospects for  development of friendly relations between Russia and Georgia.

Overwhelming majority of Russians think that Georgia needs a more decent President than Saakashvili (79%).  Eleven percent noted that they would not say that they like everything about the President of Georgia, but they respect the choice of  the Georgian people. In every two out of 100 cases our fellow citizens express respect and liking towards the President of Georgia. 

Remarkably, more educated respondents tend to think that Georgia needs a more decent President (70% of Russians with elementary education and 83% among those with higher and incomplete higher education). Less educated respondents more often than Russians with higher level of education point out that although they do not like Saakashvili, they respect the choice of the Georgian people (14% among respondents with elementary education versus 6% of Russians with higher and incomplete higher education).

The amount of those who are confident that there is no possibility for the further development of friendly relations between Russia and Georgia with the current Georgian President Saakashvili has more than doubled in recent five years: such point of view was shared by 32% of respondents in 2004 and 78% in 2009. Moreover, five years ago 40% or Russians   had hopes for friendship between the two nations with the current President of Georgia. Today there are only 14% of such respondents. More than one-quarter of Russians were undecided on the perspective of the further development of Georgian-Russian relations. Inhabitants of North-Western Federal District rarer than others mark the possibility of friendly relations between the two states (6% of respondents).

It is interesting that among those respondents who consider that Georgia deserves a much better president than Saakashvili, 88% have doubts about the possibility of further positive scenario for relations between Russia and Georgia. At the same time, respondents respecting the choice of the Georgian people were divided in opinion on the further development of relations between the two countries (44% think that friendly relations are possible, the same share has an opposing view towards the issue).

The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on July 25-26, 2009. 

1600 respondents were interviewed at 140 sampling points in 42 regions of Russia.

The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.

Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or www.wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM,

the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!